Can I infer from this thread that Merc heals are middle of the pack? Sorry if that's a dumb question. i haven't played in quite a while, and I'm still leveling to 55.

And it's really, really bad. Some of the worst voice acting, and cheesiest, cliched storylines ever. The worst SWTOR class storyline is head and shoulders above anything in GW2.

Just spent the day playing Wildstar. Pros: awesome animations combat system (though i can see myself getting sick of it) quirky aesthetics music is crazy good Cons: awful optimization god awful ui beyond awful beginner zone crappy quests I can see the pvp being really good, but as the game stands, the leveling process is so bad I'll never see it.

Used to know a character in an old MUD that was role-played as a snarky diplomat/spy. His name jumped into my head when I rolled my IA, so I went with it. Dantrotic. I'm a cyborg, of course.

Fiction is conflict. Kaliyo is one of the best-written companions in the game for that reason alone.

Why is every company other than Blizzard so afraid of add-ons? My kingdom for Bartender right now.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveManBand Bioware knows their tropes. Some of the other classes' companion lists could have benefited from the same treatment.

4/10 If they actually fix the ability delay, that'll jump to an 8 or so.

Makeup jokes aside, operative or scoundrel are what you're after.

Smuggler's your best bet, then. BH and smuggler are the only two classes where you're not someone's lackey for a good part of the story.

Opposite of your trooper? So you want a non-human, dark side, force-using, womanizing melee character. Marauder or Jugg. Maybe operative.

Every class has a different set of tropes attached, most likely so that everyone will find a class that suits them. I played enough of the Consular story to realize that set of tropes wasn't for me, but I'm not ready to say that it's a bad story because of this. But, since I've no desire to play an SI, I've gone ahead and looked at much of the story line, and I agree with the OP that it's rather weak. In BW's defense, what they've done here is the equivalent of creating 8 movie scripts, and there's bound to be a couple duds. Overall, pretty impressive job, though.

I was amazed at how much companions (and specifically first companions) affected my final decision on class. Smuggler? No way I was putting up with Corso Riggs for more than a level. Out. Inquisitor? Khem Val is too freaky looking. Bzzzt. I ended up going with the classes that get female love interests as the first companion, which probably says something about my psyche.

Yeah. Me too.

As many others have said, thanks for the guide. Was planning on choosing a different class, but BH sucked me in, and I was pretty clueless.