slap to the face so true, so true ...

It helps to keep mobs in a specific area ... for example you leap into a pack of mobs and try to build aggro up, but your ranged DPS drop every freaking AoE they got before you even land ... so now the NPCs are slowed and either die soon, or you have enough time to get aggro up on them before they head off to all the ranged players. Otherwise ... might be helpful in pve if you try to 'outrun' mobs until they drop their aggro on you.

ok ... scratches head ... Are people really, I mean for real arguing about free stuff to be fair, unfair or whatever? If you don't like the free stuff, don't take it ... and as it is free, don't go and ask non-stop for more. Reminds me of people at a cheese counter and complaining that the free samples are too small to eat one's fill.

That's what you get for running around in the slave outfit ...

Best thing you could, should do - join a guild and run stuff with guild mates. Guilds in general are more 'newbie' friendly than random players in PUGs. And if you're interested in running ops in swtor, there are a bunch of websites that provide guides to the different operations (dulfy.net for example), even flashpoints - just do some reading up on stuff, so you know what you 'should' do, expect to see. Personally I never had a problem with explaining stuff to players who do something for the first time, however, a lot of people don't say that they are new, don't know tactics even after asking them. And that really annoys me. Yesterday for example I tanked a 16m tfb pug, asked several times if anyone doesn't know what to do (Operator) ... nobody said anything and we ended up with 30+ secs on blue channel phase without anyone even getting remotely close to the console (even the person who was meant for channeling - big blue mark above their head) ... Kephess ... same story ... we explained, asked if everything is clear and 3 lasers into whole ops group ... Now I don't care too much about it, but I understand why people want a smooth run and therefore are looking for players who did it before ... same as those asking for 69+ geared players to run storymode operations :/ Having only players who know what to do, outgear content = quick run and lower repair bills.

In a guild I was in we had a deaf member who raided HM with the rest of us and failed less than others, who were on VoIP. So it isn't needed to be able to listen, but it in general it helps a lot. A deaf player will have to pay way more attention to the screen itself, text messages etc as they wont be able to get the sound effects for specific effects (e.g. massive laser on TC, or ability procs). And to be honest, I suppose that a deaf player will have a higher visual awareness to compensate for the missing aural sense.

If you're so short on time that a bonus boss would kill your scedule you might shouldn't run any FPs ... just an idea. To the topic: If anyone needs the possible loot, or majority agrees on doing bonus I do it, no matter if I tank, heal or dps. Of course it is easier to go for bonus while I tank

Had a fun Athiss hm run lately ... 1st time I pug'd on a dps(mando) toon. The tank was just weird ... charging into new mobs, while we still had previous mobs up during the whole run. And each boss fight was ... 'interesting'. Professor Ley'arsha: The AoE he placed always on boss, the melee dps or while running towards the healer ... and he preferred to tank the boss always facing towards the rest of group. The Beast of Vodal Kressh: 1st time I have seen anyone try to tank the beast in open space, or while kiting it towards the healer/ranged dps ... and yes it was a fun fight. Bonus boss: Again, why should a tank have a wall in his back if the mob has a knockback or frontal/cone attack? During this fight each group member ran back into the fight ... I think 2 times at least, beside the healer who was kiting the boss as last man standing around the pillar. Prophet of Vodal: Again, AoE got placed everywhere, boss got kited outside the room - reset, healer didn't know/try to cleanse the DoT(luckily a mando can get rid of it), healer died 3 times to flames, me 2 times while trying to rezz him, again 2 to 3 deaths for each group member. And the funny part, each said that they knew what they should do as they did run it often enough and they don't need any advice about tactics. And tonight I went back to one of my tanks and got Hammer station hm. A polite hello from everyone and after asking if anyone wanted the bonus done we agreed on doing it (healer wanted/needed bonus boss). 2 members had a conversation in group chat in an unknown language (at least to me), apparently Czech as their guild indicated it, and I found myself alone with mobs as they 'used' the shortcut while I pulled mobs. It seems they informed me in chat that I shouldn't pull, but follow them ... not complaining about foreign languages, but in a group run I would prefer to use English, or at least a language everyone understands. On the first boss I died for the first time (and second time too) since I tank 55hms ... and that was a sad feeling, considering I am in full 72 gear by now. Once we got to the bonus boss area we were still 11 kills short, but the healer kept asking why we don't kill the boss now ... I explain that we need more kills and then we can go back. We kill second boss (smooth this time) and the last 2 kills missing are the human mob and lil droid before you get to the 2 turrets just in front of the lightning bridge. And now things started to get strange ... As we got the kill count I suggest that we should go now for the bonus boss and ppl agree ... I pop my rocket boosts and off I am towards bonus ... next thing - I am in combat as the healer pulled the 2 turrets and rest stayed with him ... I run back in my slow guardian pace and we kill the turrets. Now I reconfirm that we go for bonus and all agree and the 2 dps and myself head off towards bonus boss ... and just before we reach the skip'd single turret we're in combat again. Feeling responsible for any aggro issues while tanking, I run back towards the healer and see him in combat on the other side of the bridge ... ... I suggest that he just goes into stealth (scoundrel healer), but no reaction, beside a dying healer. In the meantime the 2 dps aggro'd the turret we skip'd before ... so I head back towards them (with the droid from healer on follow) and we get rid of the aggro'd mobs finally. Now we wait at the bonus boss for the healer to rejoin us (as his guild mate indicated he would do) ... and wait and wait ... and wait. So we head towards his direction to help him find the way, but he just runs off. Now his guild mate follows him and I thought to myself that he might gonna show him how to come back ... but no, because the next thing we see on our screen is the pop-up that someone entered the last boss' area. Now the remaining dps and myself are heading there ... just to see the 2nd dps idle in a corner. We kill the last 2 groups of trash and the healer suggests that we could kill bonus once we killed the last boss. Last boss is an easy kill too, and the 2 dps and myself head towards the bonus boss ... just to see the healer (the only person who wanted to kill the bonus boss in the first place) leave the instance ... Tl;dr: Never run a hm FP if it takes you roughly 10 mins to find a group as tank ...

20+ millions for an off spec alone (tanking) on one character, several for the main spec too ... Overall for all characters? To be honest, I don't want to know it ... but way too much, considering I don't like to play the AH/GTN game in this game at all.

Jeez ... just a name I used a long time ago in a text based mmo game ... somehow I got used to it.

... and I was feeling special with my 53 attempts to get the last grenade schematic ...

necro thread ... yummy I suggest as penalty for changing the advanced class = rollback of your toon to level 10.

If the dc'd person has to get back into the ops group someone was a moron for kicking them ... until today I have never seen anyone dc'ing (ALT+F4 works as well) being removed from an ops group ... maybe if they login after 30mins ... but that I would have to see as well. The only time I have seen someone being removed from the group that person logged out ... and that really isn't a smart thing to do ... imho only ofc. And if that would ever happen to me: I would just ignore your guild and live happy without seeing anyone of you in any of the pve stuff I do (and I only tank or heal), but as you only want to have your buddies around you we shouldn't meet any ways. Regarding the negativity in this thread ... I would consider ppl doing this as on the same level as ninja looters (ops leader changing loot rules on last boss as it just about to die) - only because you can do it (game design) doesn't mean it is morally right.

I would suggest to go to ... STAR WARS: The Old Republic > English > Classes > Roles Threads in Forum : Tanking as this is the worng sub forum for the question. (edit: Sorry, but I was sure I opened and replied to it in general sub forum - might be just too warm for me lil brain) Threads like: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=567164 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=616779 http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=645948 and others should help you out to get an idea.

convenience After max'ing out every crew skill I only take Biochem on every new toon, and the reason behind it is simple: for convenience. The blue crafted stims/adrenals give more raw stats/boost (+7 defense and a bit more endurance for the fortunate one for example) - so to min/max your performance you want to use those, but the reusable ones do not cost you anything at all (once you got them ofc) and nothing should hold you back from using them all the time, whereas the blue ones need to be crafted/bought and that either costs time or credits and therefore a lot of people only use them rarely to save them up. They are also a nice boost/help while levelling up alts (with biochem ofc). If the question would be about what crewskill is the best to min/max performance in an ops - cybertech could be considered as useful as biochem as you could throw in one of the reusable grenades for dps every 3 mins, but I think even there the blue 'one use' ones perform better than the reusable ones (not sure tbh, as I only use them on my cybertech toon).