I played SWTOR at launch but took a hiatus shortly after RotHC. Just came back to the game and am trying to get up to speed on all the changes to my beloved Operative. SWTOR has always suffered from a bit of "ability bloat". I'm curious about how you have your bars set up? It seems I have a half dozen self-heals, a few abilities that spend TA that are more utility in nature, and a distinct absence of Orbital Strike and Carbine Burst. Are there any abilities that are pretty much useless for Concealment Ops? Right now I literally have all abilities on my bars while I "re-learn" how to play, but I'd like to trim it down to the essentials and useful utility abilities. Any feedback is appreciated. I've been gone for 3+ years and so much has changed to the class and the game as a whole, it's a bit overwhelming.

Ah, OK. Thanks. We thought they were dispatchers. Lesson learned!

We did an 8m SM tonight and couldn't get past wave 5. We split into two groups (T, D, D, H each) and on wave 5 with the bulwarks and dispatchers, but we keep losing healers. For some reason they'd just suddenly start taking massive damage (I assume reflective, despite healers not DPS'ing and everyone standing within the shield). Group 1 stacked on West, and Group 2 stacked on East. Everyone was within their respective bulwark shield. We tried killing the bulwarks first. As soon as 1 bulwark would die, we'd suddenly take massive damage spikes. So we tried killing the dispatchers first, and the same thing would happen--we'd get big damage spikes. One of our tanks died to his own AOE attack, despite being stacked up on the bulwark. We couldn't even get the East and West groups killed to go handle South. Meanwhile, OT was keeping boss busy so he wouldn't hit either group with a cone attack. I'm just not sure what we're doing wrong. Saw the Dulfy guide but it seems to imply all you need to do on those waves is stack within the bulwark shield and pew pew. Thoughts?

Thanks! Bought a card from them, and had to do phone verification since I'm in the US and paid with Paypal. But otherwise it was a breeze. Redeemed the code on the SWTOR site and had my pet waiting when I logged in.

If I buy this card, but have a US account, will the code work? Or are they region-locked?

Thanks for the prompt reply. The success sound definitely played for me, but the schematic does not appear in my character's Artifice menu. I even logged out and logged back in hoping it might change, but no luck. The thread you linked to is informative, but seems to center around Arkanian and Underworld relics. This was a Dread Guard relic. Not sure if that matters in the grand scheme of things, but I wanted to mention it. Please let me know if there are any steps I should take next.

Earlier today I tried to reverse engineer a Dread Guard relic I had purchased for 150 Classic Comms. The item had a tooltip saying there was a 20% chance to learn. I began the RE process and was excited when I heard the "success" sound the game normally plays when you learn a new schematic. However, a red text error message popped up: "No reverse engineering information available for 'Dread Guard Relic of Shield Amplification'". The loot window that normally pops up with a few paltry mats from the RE process was curiously empty. I checked my Artifice menu, and the schematic is not listed. So now I am without the relic, no mats, no comms, and no schematic. I attempted to submit a ticket, but received a "the system is unable to process your request" error so I am turning to the CS forums for help. Bioware, since I got the success sound, I'm assuming my attempt to learn the schematic was successful. I'd like the schematic. If not, the very least that needs to happen is my comms need to be refunded. Thanks.

Well, I am primarily talking about not having to taunt bosses pre-2.0. I mean, I might have fired off one taunt at the outset of a fight, but normally I'd save my taunts for mechanics (ex. Toth/Zorn HM switch) instead of working it into a rotation. It just seemed unnecessary--nobody EVER pulled a boss off me pre-2.0. And in 2.0 I'm still not having problems with boss threat, but I am on trash... especially in the new HM FP's where you might have trash packs consisting of 6 or 7 mobs. It's just hard for me to keep everyone corralled. Quite honestly, I think Sonic Missile is broken or bugged. I'll fire it off into a trash pack of, say, 5 mobs, and will watch 2 of them still make a bee-line for a healer or dps, even if that dps isn't hitting that particular mob. It's weird. And I'm not the only PT tank in my guild this seems to happen to. Conversely, on my Shadow tank, I can hit Mass Mind Control and mobs are on me like Hutt on cake--no strays. What's the range limit on Sonic Missile? The tooltip just says all "nearby" enemies, whereas MMC specifies a range (15m from the tank). Is SM's range based on where you fire it TO, or where YOU are standing (like MMC)? Thanks for breaking it down. That's actually quite helpful. Small favor: would you mind linking your spec, as well as posting your AOE rotation? TIA. So, to clarify: firing off a taunt will put you on top of the highest threat on the targets hate list + 30% more hate? But from the outset of the taunt, right? Not continuously for 6 seconds? I'm thinking of situations where maybe a sniper drops Orbital Strike--if I'm concerned about losing the mob, I am better served taunting after all 3 strikes hit, as opposed to just after the first one, correct?

See, this was my thinking pre-2.0. In 1.7, I almost NEVER had to taunt (see OP). Jet Charge + 2x Flame Sweep + Flame Thrower was enough to hold aggro on even the pickiest trash packs. Bosses were never a problem, and still aren't in 2.0 (good god, what kind of tank would I be?). But with trash in 2.0 I'm finding taunting is somewhat of a necessity now, at least in my gear. I'm hoping as my gear improves (keeps pace with, or out-paces, the DPS that I'm running with) that this will be less of an issue over time.

But dipstik and keyboardninja seem to vary in their respective threads on whether or not stacking Defense (kbn) is preferred over stacking Shield (dipstik). Interested in your thoughts here, because you seem to grasp it better than I do. Admittedly, math is not my strong suit, so a lot of the formulae go over my head. But reading both threads as a layman, it still seems that there's no discernible mitigation differences if you prioritize Defense over Shield Chance. The only thing that seems to be in agreement is that Absorb is pointless until you're in full Underworld and/or have a stat budget in excess of 2500. If anything, I would think stacking Defense and Shield somewhat evenly is preferred (not the %'s, but the budgets), leaving Absorb for those unavoidable situations where you can't drop it (implants, earpiece, relic, etc.) and it's more like a "passive" stat than one you actively stacked. Or am I waaayy off-base in my grasp of dipstik and kbn's threads?

Thanks for all the replies. I will probably keep my spec as-is for now and make minor adjustments as my gear improves (specifically dropping the endurance from Integrated Cardio talent in favor of something for threat, like Prototype Burn Enhancers or Iron Fist). The jury is still out on trading Fire Storm for Rail Loaders, IMO. One thing I have done, in response to KeyboardNinja's theorycrafting, is to stack Defense with my new MK-9 augments. This has resulted in current stats of 21.52% (1052) Defense, 32.42% (496) Shield Chance, and 29.52% (207) Shield Absorb. My guild ran SnV SM the other night (we got past Thrasher before it got too late to continue) and I had absolutely NO problems with survivability. My usual healers said I seemed to be taking less damage than I was before, which is nice. Of course, it could also be that everyone's gear is improving organically. Threat was still a bit of a problem with our snipers, but nothing I couldn't handle. Side Question: in a few threads, I've noticed people are saying the BiS relics are a tank relic and the "healing relic", but nobody ever says which one. Does anyone know specifically the BiS relics for tanks in 2.0? Thanks!

I'm hoping this is just an oversight by Bioware and that both the pets and the mounts will return. There's no reason to remove them. Yet they keep the Aratech speeder missions in, which are now easier than ever to obtain. SMH

Finally racked up enough WZ comms and valor to buy this speeder, and I can't seem to find it for sale from the PVP items vendor anymore. Was it removed, or simply moved to a different vendor? If removed, why???

Having issues with both threat and survivability in 2.0. This was never a problem pre 2.0, so I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone else is experiencing the same, or if I need to tweak my build and/or rotation? At L-55, I'm running 36/8/2. Thanks to some lucky drops in HM 55 FP's, I'm sitting at 32,500 HP, 16.5% Def, 34.1% SC and 33% SA. Survivability: My usual healers (Operative and Sorc) both say I'm taking a lot more bursty damage than I did pre 2.0, and I agree. I'm not quite happy with how they changed Heat Screen to be consumed with Heat Blast and only good for 6 seconds rather than stacked with Flame Sweep and Flame Burst and good for 15. But either way it certainly doesn't seem to offer anywhere near the defensive benefits as it used to. Threat: I've also noticed that Sonic Missile doesn't seem to work as it used to. I've fired it directly at trash mobs in 55 FP's and still watched them make a bee-line for a healer or DPS. Not sure if it's bugged, but it's just one of many threat issues I'm having. Pre 2.0, my opener would usually be Jet Charge + the 2 free Flame Sweeps. I'd then toss out Flame Thrower and Rocket Punch various mobs as it went on CD until the pack was dead. Even in HM Ops, this would be enough to keep trash on me without needing to taunt. But in a pinch I'd do Carbonize + Explosive Dart, and MAYBE use Sonic Missile if we had a bunch of Orbital Strike-happy IA's. But for the most part threat was never an issue. If a single mob started to head towards DPS or heals, a Rocket Punch, Grapple (if they got too far) or even a Rapid Shot was all it took to bring them back. Post 2.0, I'm having a helluva time keeping mobs on me as a PT. Comparatively, my Jedi Shadow tank has no such issues, and actually seems to have seen some improvements in survivability. So am I doing something wrong? Or are we just feeling the growing painsof new gear + new level content? Any tips on build, rotation, and stat balance for the post 2.0 PT tank would be much appreciated. Thanks! EDIT: FWIW, I have 1.97% Alacrity (138 rating) due to a few new drops, but I am still not sure of its viability for PT tanks. Thoughts?

Gotcha. It doesn't make sense to me why they'd choose such a low cap, but I guess with the ability to earn unlimited Planetary Comms is a somewhat fair trade-off. You'd just have to spend-as-you-go to stay below the 50 cap. As for the other comm caps, I'm OK with that. We've been rather spoiled for a while now, able to gear up alts and companions far too easily. With the weekly caps in place, it actually forces me to think and choose which gear I want and plan my gear progression carefully. As opposed to right now, where gearing up is like being a fat guy at a buffet restaurant.

Tried searching, but found nothing. Curious if any of these will be removed in 2.0 / RotHC and I need to get them now, or I can wait because they'll still be available. 1.) HK part schematics sold at daily vendor? 2.) New (1.6) ship schematics sold at daily vendor? 3.) PVP Vendor mounts sold for WZ comms? 4.) Aratech mount missions from the fleet terminal? (have some unfinished on alts) Thanks.

I understand the need to lower the caps on the equivalent elder game commendations, to throttle the speed at which people gear up and thereby blaze through the new content. But... ...a cap of 50 planetary comms? Why? Seems completely arbitrary. It's not as if planetary vendors have amazing gear -- most people I know use those comms to gear out companions or alts. Some of my 50's have over 500 (of what will be) planetary comms. Has any (reasonable) explanation been given as to why this # was chosen?

Dear Bioware, You claim you value my opinion as a long-time subscriber (CE pre-order + sub since Day 1) and encourage my honest and forthright feedback. So here it is. While I understand and support the existence of the Cartel Market, I want to begin by pointing out that its very existence may not be Pay-to-Win, but it is certainly P2W by proxy. How so? Because players who spend real money to acquire Cartel Packs are then able to turn around and sell the rarer items on the GTN. In turn, the profits they earn from such sales enable them to re-invest in elder game upgrades such as armoring, mods, hilts, etc. This gives them a distinct gearing advantage, not to mention the endless flow of credits to make other in-game purchases that less wealthy subscribers or F2P customers cannot do without a serious investment of time. (And I won't even bring up the ludicrous availability of starship upgrades on the CM...) As such, you have created a sort of SWTOR 1%. And we all know how many in the US feel about the 1%. Like I said before, I understand the existence of the CM. It is necessary for you to generate revenue and keep producing new SWTOR content. Please, by all means, continue to do so. But please realize the slippery slope you are on. A slope you seemed to have slipped on with the introduction of this new Rep faction in this week's patch. You have crossed a line, Bioware. You took what was (mostly) a market filled with cosmetic items and other perks that didn't affect the ethical progress of players, and turned it in to a massive cash grab with the Contraband Resale Corp. While you might not see it this way, here's how it looks from this player's perspective: You spent several months giving us fun and (mostly) useful items on the CM. You then introduced faction Rep by creating what is admittedly a cool event, the Gray Secant. Rep with these factions (Voss, Gree, etc.), and their subsequent rewards, could be obtained freely by subscribers with an equitable investment of hours played. This was fair. But where you crossed the line was introducing the Contraband Resale Corp faction. (1) You removed items from the CM and made them available only via Contraband rep. (2) You then took other items of high value or high demand that exist in current Cartel Packs and made them available for purchase from the Contraband faction. (3) Rep can only be obtained with this faction by purchasing the related Cartel Pack. (4) Currency to purchase some items from this faction can only be obtained by purchasing MASSIVE amounts of the related Cartel Packs and rolling the proverbial dice. It is shocking how no one at Bioware looked at what is essentially a cash shop within a cash shop and thought maybe, just maybe, a large portion of customers might be offended by the obvious greed being displayed here. And what do you offer to us, your loyal customers, as the reasoning behind this new faction? To paraphrase, we were told that the reason for this new faction was to reward players who bought a lot of Cartel Packs by giving them something in return: a semi-exclusive faction rep. The problem is that a "reward" is something you give to somebody for doing something (past tense). These players have already bought a ton of Cartel Packs from you. Thus, it is not a "reward" to ask them to turn around and spend even more money to buy more packs to increase rep with a faction whose currency is both cash-bought reputation + an arbitrary and random currency token, the Cartel Market Certificate. Indeed, the fact that the Contraband Corp rep can be advanced by 36,000 per week, whereas other ("free") faction reps are only advanced by 12,000 rep per week, just provides more evidence to your customers that this is a blatant money grab. Frankly, I find the way this was handled offensive. As I said before, I get the existence of the Cartel Market. I have bought items from it. I have bought packs from it. I like the concept. What I do not like is being treated like a drug addict with Bioware as my pusher, being hooked on a product only to be told later, "Sorry, the price has gone up. If you REALLY want to party, you gotta pony up." Granted, neither the Cartel Market, the Cartel Packs, the Contraband Corp rep, nor the "free" in-game reps like Gree, Voss, etc. are necessary to enjoy the game. But when new content is few and far between, and Bioware ties new content to rep/faction grinds (which you did), and consistently pushes the Cartel Market and makes highly desirable items ONLY available through the CM (which you did), it creates an atmosphere of necessity for many players who want to get their $15 worth every month. Want an Overlord's Command Throne? Buy some packs and hope to get lucky. Or do some dailies and earn rep and build up credits and buy one from the GTN. Either way, you are fostering the Cartel Market, since supply for these items on the GTN only exists if people are obtaining them through cash-bought Cartel Packs. It would be different if even just SOME of these items existed as world drops (hint hint), or Mission rewards (cough cough), or were rare drops from Operation bosses (wink wink), or could also be bought for Warzone Comms (nudge nudge). But they're not--they are ONLY available via the Cartel Market. In the real world, we call that a monopoly... or a racket. While I know some players will not agree with my opinions (and that's fine--to each his own), I imagine many will. But I'm not posting this for them--I am directing this at you, Bioware. It's not that you've lost me as a customer, but you have lost some of my faith in you. The current way this new faction/market is being handled is a punch to the gut for players like me who want to see SWTOR succeed, and are willing to pay a subscription fee to help that along (and maybe buy a few Cartel Coins, too), but who also feel mistreated right now. I implore you to take another look at how this is all being handled and find a more equitable arrangement that doesn't come across slimier than a greased Hutt. On a related note, and perhaps equally annoying, I want to conclude by mentioning my disgust at seeing some of the new weapon skins in this latest round of packs. Up until now, many of the weapon skins found in previous Cartel Packs were unique to the packs themselves. This was a nice touch--a true way to show it wasn't P2Win--it was P2Bling. But many weapon skins in the new packs look disturbingly similar to Arkanian/Underworld weapons we've seen in 2.0 PTS thus far. These are weapons that aren't even out yet. And even when 2.0 is released... even when Makeb goes live... people still won't be obtaining those weapons until level 55 elder game content. Yet here they are--those same weapon skins (or ones eerily similar) already available for purchase on the Cartel Market, weeks/months before the expansion, available to anyone with (on my server at the time of this writing) anywhere from 10k to 250k credits. Bioware, do you not see how this is also a slap in the face to your subscribers? You have Ops team and guilds champing at the bit to get into the new Operations and work hard to earn the new gear so they can have something to be proud of that sets them apart. Yet you are practically giving away those weapon skins to any Tom, Dick or Wookiee already. It's like having your mom and dad tell you to wait for Christmas for that brand new toy, only to see them buy it for your siblings the day before Thanksgiving. Moving forward, I'd like to see less blatant greed, and perhaps a bit more attention paid to your subscribers. Instead of throwing stuff against a wall to see if it sticks, how about some regularly surveys linked in the game launcher? How about asking us BEFORE you make introductions or changes to the game that you cannot then easily undo if the tide of public opinion turns against you? I, like many of your fans, want to continue my adventures in the Old Republic. I just ask that you please don't make me regret it. -Sylin

No, we definitely won the match, as we advanced further than our opponents and the match ended as soon as we extended the bridge, with over 4 minutes remaining. It was just disappointing and frustrating after playing about 10 matches and getting 0 wins, to finally have a win snatched from us by a glitch or hack.

Was in a Voidstar match tonight on Shadowlands US-PVE. We were defending first, and held our opponent to the bridge. So upon our attack, all we had to do was extend the bridge and we win, right? Not so fast. With roughly 4 minutes left, we managed to activate the bridge and the match ended, and our team was tossing out the regular GG's. But when the summary screen popped up, it said "DEFEAT", which then resulted in a flurry of ***?'s from our team. Was this a bug? Or a hack?

Great job, guys. Watched your live stream and was really impressed. Grats on the incredible effort made to kill the hidden boss! -Glad

That's precisely what I thought, too. With all the other "sets" on the Cartel Market, the armor matches by default. TMK, it's only the Revan outfit that is now mis-matched both with and without Unify Colors on. One would think that if the Bioware artists took the time to re-design the robe, they'd consult the source model (in this case, Revan in the Foundry) and just go off of that. Hopefully they'll fix it. I know this isn't exactly a major bug, but it doesn't seem to be "working as intended" and is immersion-breaking.

The problem I am having with the Major XP Boost is that the timer seems to tick off even when I'm logged out. I first noticed this last week when I activated a 3-hour XP Boost, played for about 20 minutes, and then logged out so I could go tank an Operation on another character. When I logged back in on my alt, instead of 2:40, I had about 1:55 left. Since then, I have made a habit of noting the remaining time on my XP Boosts prior to logging out. About 50% of the time, they are off by considerable amounts when I log back in. Not sure what's causing the missing time (X-Files???) but most recently I had ~2:00 left on my Boost yesterday, and when I logged in today, it was down to 44 minutes. Hard not to feel cheated, because I paid for these boosts and I'm losing big chunks of time through what seems to be an in-game glitch. (And before anyone asks, no one else is playing my characters. I am in the exact spot I logged out at, and I use a security key app for iOS and my phone is always with me.) Server: Shadowlands US-PVE

TLDR version: the colors on the Revan's Chest Plate and Revan's Robes are all wrong. Please fix! Long version, from an unhappy Revanite: While I am VERY happy with the new design to the Revan's Robes in the 1.6.2 patch, the color for both pieces is now way off from the outfit Revan wears in the Foundry. Prior to the patch, the Revan's Chest Plate was a dark gray that nearly matched the Foundry outfit (altho Revan's Foundry outfit seems to be darker), and the Revan's Robes matched. But now, the Robes are BROWN, and the Revan's Chest Plate was changed to a Light Gray. What gives? The result is that they clash terribly and look nothing like the Foundry outfit. And if you Unify Colors, the Robes do get the red stripe down the middle like Revan's Foundry outfit has, but the primary color turns light gray, like the Chest, and looks ridiculous. If the intent was to match the Foundry outfit, both the Revan's Chest Plate and the Revan's Robes should be a much darker gray as the primary color. Here's a post on Dulfy comparing the 2 -- the color differences are obvious. Here's Revan's outfit in the Foundry. And since I have your ear, I would also like to put in a request that Revan's belt and gloves be added. The Grand Inquisitor's Waistwrap has the right model for the belt, but it's Inquisitor-only.

After today's patch I'm not sure what's up with that green "play" button next to my characters, but it hardly seems necessary, and is obnoxious IMO. Does it change to something else if you're not a subscriber, or have "locked" characters? If so, I could MAYBE understand its presence, but there are SO many better ways to do this, Bioware. First, let me choose how to sort my characters. Give me a fly-out bar that allows me to sort by level (and reverse), A-Z (and reverse), by faction (as a sub-sort), or Manually using up/down arrows for each toon. Second, stop treating your players like 3 year-olds and lose the big green Play button you just arbitrarily put in the selection screen. There's already a yellow border around my selected character (as opposed to blue, for non-selected ones), I can see a BIG animation of them on my screen, and there's a Play button on the lower right corner. Why do I need yet another visual cue that yes, THIS is the toon I want to play? If people are honestly complaining that they weren't sure about which toon they were logging in to, then add an animation effect to the yellow border around the character's name box. If you need to isolate "locked" characters, then gray them out. Third--and I can only speak from personal experience here at 1920x1080 res--but why only 8 characters per page? In a game with a customizable UI, one would think we could maximize the screen real estate here and shrink it down to allow for more characters per page. Last but not least, adding that little window that tells me "You are a SUBSCRIBER"? Love it. Honestly, not being sarcastic here. It not only makes me feel good, but it's functional in that it lets me know the status of my subscription at a glance. If it ever changes, I know I'm in trouble. /soapbox PS... the lock/unlock UI button in-game is FUBAR. Please fix. Thanks.