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).

I'll have to add one/some of my guildies to the list, so not sure if this post fits under the thread title at all I was running Athiss hm (again, seems I only get Cad or Athiss at all on 3 toons lately) and after the tiny dog boss you have the temple guardians and temple disciples and the latter have an increased stealth detection buff. And my fellow shadow dps tried 4 or 5 times to sap them and lucky as I was I had pulled another mob already. As it was a full guild run I wanted to see how long it would take him to realize that he cannot (at least he cannot) CC them, and been chatting and laughing in /w with my 'personal' healer about it. Once we finished with the champions and before the Prophet I asked him to target one of the remaining mobs and try to read their buffs ... we'll see next time if the /hint worked out. And another Athiss fun guild run ... everything went smooth until Prophet ... (ok, nearly smooth as one dps always went for the CC'd & marked targets 1st and somehow didn't get the explanation/meaning of CC and marked and ... etc, however no dead ppl until last boss) ... ok Prophet time Healer (we slightly forced him to come heal ... to get gear and experience) just didn't manage to get the cleanse on his quickbars, to click/press it etc ... and it took some attempts to get it working Then he commited suicide on fireballs while trying to stand near me to heal me (was on my shadow so I really didn't need too much healing) ... Then while running back (again) a dps brought the remaining Temple champions with him ... and saberslingered the boss straight away (too close to his heal on quickbars) ... In the end it was really a fun run ... somehow we always had at least one person (dps or healer) running back during the whole last fight until the boss died. However, I have to admit, if I would have ended up in a pug as tank and these things would happen ... I might would have simply left the group ... And one more Cad fun thingy ... (this time a real pug group) On the wookie boss I somehow struggled to get aggro on all adds (DPS just love to AoE them) ... ... so I typed in chat that they should stick close to the boss(giving me a chance to get aggro) - and nope, a slinger and commando HAS TO BE at maximum range to be played right. As they refused to get closer(it seems they preferred to run circles like headless chickens with the adds on their trail) I asked them politely to get the adds to the boss at least during his unstable fuel(???) channel/explosion ... and guess what ... they all ran off (I think one nearly reached the elevator) to different directions and I ended up with the healer and a lot ... A LOT of adds to kill.

I'll have to set 'newcomer questions' apart from 'lazy guy' questions. If I see players asking the usual(or not so usual) newcomer questions I don't hesitate to answer them (if possible) and try to guide them in addition to helpful in-game or 'outsourced' information bases (tutorial, mouseover on charactersheet, codex etc) as 'discovering/learning stuff yourself' later on is more gratifying (at least to me). I just 'dislike' the 'stupid ... learn to google ... noob ... etc ... etc' replies in chat. Either give a helpful reply or just ignore the question. I was lucky that I got into a very helpful guild during my first mmorpg experience and my guild leader and fellow guild members always tried to find an answer(if the time/moment allowed it) to my questions or guide me to more complex/theorycrafting heavy informations if needed. What I don't really like are the 'lazy guys' ... Be it the lvl 30 who wants help on his lvl 36 class quest (just level up to reach the required level, maybe?) and spamming /1 ongoing with 'I NEED HELP'; be it the dps/tank whom you explained what stats he should aim for (you even provided him with the links to the numbers behind it and/or mods/enhancements to get full 66 purple gear to start SM ops) and he still has 91% accuaracy (and wondering why he doesn't hit the boss) as he wanted to take the endurance heavy crit gear as it is lvl 69; be it the one who at lvl 40+ still didn't manage to read a quest text to know where to go, what to kill etc, or simply to run towards the green triangle indicated on the map; be it the shadow dps in combat technique and of course refusing to switch to shadow technique as he takes less damage with CT (seen vanguards in tank stance too going full AoE as dps before tank even hits the first mob) asking why he keeps getting aggro on mobs ... in a 55 hm, not a low level sm (until lvl 55 you should have learned to read tool tips imho); be it the one who was in the alt/newbies gearing ops run yesterday and you said it would be helpful if they would read up about the upcoming bosses before the ops to make things easier/shorter to explain and then they idle on the fleet 3 hours before the ops, but once it started they never had enough time to read up ... and if you're lucky they are the same who didn't manage to install voice chat for 2 weeks, so you have to type it all out again. Can it be fun to run something totally new (no dulfy guide for example) with a group of like-minded players? Of course, and I really enjoy it (I only started to pve with lvl 55hm FPs in swtor, as a tank ). Some(most ) of the low level FPs are/were a 'new world' to me and I ended up to run some where nobody in the group had a plan of what to do at all, beside kill mobs and we all agreed on 'learn by trying'. Was it a long run? Yes, but for sure one of the most fun ones I had in swtor. However, as I don't want to be a burden (repair costs, time, stress cookies comsumed) to the players I run with, especially for ops - I try to get as much information beforehand and then fine tune to my personal 'how to' while playing.

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=6422162 This thread should explain what relic would be BiS for your class.

open guild window ('G')>>> click details button (top right) >>> watch really concentrated on top right corner of the new window >>> you learn how much reputation bonus you gain from being a guildmember

Dunno, sometimes I wonder why everyone is speaking for the majority ... We (me, myself & I) at least are happy for the event to be back and even if there are no 'new vendor items' (not even sure as the event isn't live atm) we will find some fancy stuff to buy ... "you can nevar have enuff sabers".

I just gonna bump in for my 2 cents as well ... First, it did happen during the last event, not sure what exactly it was (group member healing, buffs or whatever - and no it wasn't me hitting a yellow pc as I don't have autotarget enabled and even during dailies I pay attention to what I hit). Second, I am fully ok with ppl being pvp flag'd for entering the pvp area to grab the event goodies from there ... nobody is forcing you to go there, but they could change the camp maybe to a rested zone and allow you to get rid of the flag and reduce the time too, maybe. However, something that should get added is a simple 'nevar flag' option: In Rift you had the problem that on raid rifts (time limited) one sneaky pvp flag'd player ran into the AoE, all the raid got flag'd ... and surprise a full raid of pvp geared players showed up to have their fun. After some time they added a feature that would prevent you from getting flag'd, with the restriction that you couldn't heal, buff or interact with any pvp flag'd allies. You could spam all the AoE you wanted on top of flag'd enemies without bothering to get flag'd yourself. Of course would you still get flag'd for entering a marked pvp zone, enemy base etc, but once you got rid of the flag ... no more 'pay attention' like a dog on guard duty.

The best example of allowing solo players to have a dip of endgame/group content I know of are the chronicles in Rift. They made solo/duo versions of some raid instances and adapted/deleted some mechanics inside to cater the reduced amount of players. This way players could have a look at what it looks inside, continue the story and some more content was offered to players who play at odd hours, cannot/want not to group up or for whatever reason prefer to play solo. However, the rewards got adapted too as rewards should always scale/represent the difficulty of the instance and the set-up required to get a group for it. And yes, I have difficulties to understand ppl who want to have everything others get, but not do the same to get it. Would I love to get my Xth alt geared faster/easier for ops sometimes? - Yes, but if I can get all the rewards without playing the MMOpart of a mmorpg .... then I could go back to a single player rpg and use the editor and just get all the gear I want and way faster too. And there are a bunch of guilds out there offering a home to those who work long, odd hours, RL (kids, wife or cats first) priority players. Maybe you should invest some of your time to find a guild, group of like-minded players ... I mean it shouldn't be too hard as the majority of players (following your research) support your ideas and views.

The armoring holds the set bonus now, if you pull out the armoring and replace it with a crafted one (66 in your example) you kill the set bonus. And you have 2 different set boni shown as well - Rakata Force-Mystic's Gear & Battlemaster Force-Master's Gear

While tanking, especially on my guardian I hate ... yes my guardian hates ... every single player who thinks knockbacks are kewl to use while I try to keep the mobs on me ... nothing more amusing to me than seeing my main target get 'force pushed' away from me (while I try to keep the interrupts up on him) or sages(yes sages) running into melee range and scatter the whole pack of mobs all over the place, and lucky me: as guardian I have such wonderful (mid)ranged AoE abilities .... not. These are days I am considering to just run as dps and go on /follow.

Damn, I would be so happy to run FPs with you ... especially as I run either tank or healer, so I could care less if ppl would (try) to kick me (just some more ppl added to my ignore list). Do you kick players without rocket boosts and sprint/scamper as class ability too? ... I mean those slackers really slow down a FP run. On topic - complaining about the fix of a broken ability on a forum is silly. Then getting upset about ppl replying to your thread in reference to the title, especially as you went for a generalized 'biochem sux' title is even more than silly. Biochem is nowhere near useless in FPs or OPS, unless your only reason to take any crewskill is in the intention to abuse a bug. Slightly offtopic: You're upset as well that the augment bolster bug got fixed? I mean why buy green augments if they don't serve any purpose at lvl 55 ...