Probably not a screw up but a misunderstanding by Bioware what motivates people to participate in such an event. They thought players care about the rewards and achieves were just a convenient bookkeeping tool when if fact many care as much about the achievement. Hopefully, they will correct this.

My guess is that the purpose of veteran mode is to add replay value. Chapter 1 has been a nice challenge in VM but is too easy to add replay value. So, for my part I enjoy getting owned.. I will return when I am ready., Now, ideally, SM would be just a tad easier than current VM and VM a bit harder (at least the easier chapters) but I don't expect that BW tunes the chapters just for me.

It is as much the players responsibility to fight exploiting as it is Bioware's. Bioware was very slow responding to this exploit (the op loot exploit and several others that simplify HM boss fights) but players also have the responsibility to not condone exploiting in guilds, groups and operations. Speak up, leave groups that use exploits, do not join guilds who allow the use of exploits, if you feel strongly about the usage of exploits in this game. Personally, I actually care very little about usage of exploits unless I am present when players discuss them, propose to use them, or by pass the intended game mechanics. It is up to us to define what is acceptable and what is not, not just Bioware.

Any guilds recruiting on Rep side who have a policy against using exploits? Raid -ready Sage (healer or dps) looking for a casual raiding guild with raid times between 8pm and 11:30pm PST (5/5 and 2/5 SM)

One thing I really dislike currently is that every new fp, op, event, starts at a new terminal or droid, which are scattered all over fleet. With Makeb they did it right and started the quest on the holo terminal. All new content should start there. The issue is not that Makeb starts at 47 on the holo terminal, the issue is that not all new content starts at such a convenient location, guiding you to the right droid, quest giver or terminal. Of course, clicking holo shouldn't start the cut-scene, it should show a list of available content from which one would start the cut-scene. Anyway, not a big deal, there should be more content starting on holo and everyone would know that holo starts new stuff.

I died once using Qyzen since I found it difficult to heal him and consistently interrupt his casts. With Tharan in green rags he was a push over. It is probably easier to solo him without a companion than with a tank. He doesn't hit hard except for his instant kill ability. The fight was a bit of a letdown. I had expected a longer and more varied event .

As a light-side male Seer I like Qyzen best by far. Yes, I don't gain that many points with him as with Nadia but at least, he has character, he is useful, and he is a good buddy. He usually does a good job keeping aggro off me and appreciates my healing. Tharan prefers to do his own thing and complains a lot, Zenith is on a crusade, Iresso doesn't have a personality at all, Nadia is overdoing her naive Padawan thing, I feel dirty getting married to her with the sole purpose of improving her crafting.

From the viewpoint of the developers it is much easier to deal with a companion with an awkward weapon style than with an unusual armor style. Qyzen is no Jedi. Switching him to use STR would require a totally new set of STR armor that doesn't look Jedi. He is no Jedi, he shouldn't run around in Jedi armor. Adding a few specific weapons is much easier, in particular since his performance doesn't depend much at all on the weapon. He is meant to be a tank foremost and defensive stats depend mostly on armor and shield, not the weapon. If his aggro or damage are sub par, devs can simply tweak his abilities a bit. Adding moddable gear exclusively for companions is a bad idea as well. Crafters would rarely make those hilts and we don't need more loot drops that almost nobody needs. I see one possible solution: Level 50 purple commendation gear, requiring 10000 favor, with an aim based hilt that can't be removed, basically as a cap stone item. Should available for all companions but only useable by companions. Crafters wouldn't like it of course.

Using interrupts has been mentioned, doing that consistently trivializes many class bosses. I actually don't remember Vivicar at all as being difficult, only the weird pulls leading to him. Any slow cast ability of a boss usually hurts a lot. Best to prevent all or as many of them as possible. I find it much easier, even as a healing Sage, to tank caster bosses myself, using an undergeared Tharan for healing or dps. Healing and moving a tank companion requires me to switch target while I can easily heal myself (or use LOS) when tanking. Tharan is also much better at staying out of ground effects. The risk of missing an interrupt is too high using a tank. If I happen to have Qyzen or Nadia out and and an unknown boss has huge, casted damage abilities that need to be interrupted I often sacrifice them, stay on the boss, and solo the boss the rest of the way. It is safer than switching target and miss an interrupt. Melee or ranged physical bosses are easiest tanked by companions though as a Sage.

of course not, rolling back would be the most foolish thing to do. good bye.

I understand now why the MMORPG genre is stagnating. Dev's can't risk anything since a single mistake results in rage quitting of their player base. Sounds like the patch was bad but the player response is ridiculous. It is a game...

Don't have that problem. If I can't drop a quest I simply finish it. Takes me 5 minutes and even gives XP. This should be fixed quickly of course but it can really be avoided very easily.

Could anyone recommend a Jedi healer class that uses a light saber, please. Annoying that voicing displeasure about the uselessness of the LS is always being countered by the suggestion to reroll. Forums is about opinions and not truth. Yes, the sage is a Wizard with a lightsaber appendix and that is not likely going to change. That doesn't change that some players haven't found the class yet that fits their style and offering that opinion is perfectly acceptable....

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Crafting 1-49 is generally useful, fun, and well implemented, at least for me. I make a decent amount of cash from sales and spent a lot on gear upgrades and the auction house. End game it could use some improvement but the purpose of crafting is rarely to produce end game gear, it is there to gear alts, fill gaps, and help players quickly catch up in gear.

What is the purpose of a monetary system if money if plentiful without management? The way the system is set up, questing provides enough income to afford all skill upgrades plus a little extra. To be able to afford crafting recipes and reverse engineering one has to actually craft and sell crafted stuff. The more you sell, the faster you can advance crafting. I was able to balance this very well by making sure that I don't spent more on crafting than I make. It works and for me this is part of the fun of crafting. Otherwise it would just be busy work: Pour plenty of credits into crafting and you will get the recipes after x amount of time spent. Not good I think although I read posts often enough that favor such an unimaginative system.

I like the system, except for the duplicate recipe drops. This should be fixed. I also like that a range of recipes can be learned, some more, some less useful for certain types of game play. Otherwise everyone would make exactly the same kind of gear. If I get a less desirable recipe, I sell the gear at a marked down price, if I happen to get the most desirable recipe, I know that I can sell for a good price because not every crafter has it yet. This is why I enjoy SWTOR crafting. It is not the streamlined gather and assemble of other games. Crafting is not for those who become frustrated easily, crafting is not supposed to give an immediate return on investment, it should take months to master, not days, it should not be primarily designed to gear one's main character but to to sell on the market or gear alts. Just my opinion...

Only thing I am getting from this thread is that I should roll "Need" for my companion so that I can solo better. Awesome.

I believe that convenience was not the deciding factor. The 3 reasons that I can think of: Story: Planets that are in a state of war should not have operating civilian space ports. Planets that are controlled by the Republic and are relatively peaceful and developed usually have them. Bioware appears to rate immersion as high as convenience and in general I commend them for that. It would have been possible to have instant travel between all planets. Bioware didn't implement it, part because it is unrealistic, part because they may think about adding more space content. Space Game: It will be much easier to implement fully 3D space travel if the ports are instances in space instead of ports on non-instanced part of a planet. If Bioware intends to add space content to the game.... Design: Space ports are huge and require developer resources to design and server resources to operate. It is much cheaper and easier to reuse the same instanced orbital space station and shuttle.

They are about as respectful of crowd control as people in the usual Pug. Only way to make sure that CC isn't broken is by cc'ing the target half a continent away. Edit: My dream is to get my companion into vent. That way he would perhaps listen.

I see your point. I am a crafter myself. And I agree that the balance between investment and gain is not good. It takes too much effort to get the highest level purple recipes. The balance is good at lower level though but scaling is perhaps too steep. Still, how can you be so sure that you will never be able to make a profit? The game is barely 3 weeks old and people didn't have much time to get to 50 or make credits. New players start and need to catch up in gear. Many use crafted gear to skip content and directly start raiding. There is usually a market for crafted gear at the right price, even if crafted gear isn't any better than PvP/quested PvE gear. Getting a purple recipe is a long term investment and if I sell 10 at 1/10th of the cost over the course of 6 months it is still possible to make a profit even if the initial investment was high. Since purple recipes are so difficult to get, one is probably one of just a handful of crafters who can craft it. At least this is my experience on my server. How did the developers intend to balance crafted gear with gear gear from PVE/PvP or raiding? In my opinion, even as a crafter, crafted gear should never be better than quested gear, it should be on par. It should always be worse than the highest tier raid gear unless the crafted gear requires raid drops. Crafting should allow players to skip content but not replace it. Crafted should be exclusive, should be a big money and time sink short term and a moderate money maker long term. If crafting is too easy, then too many have a recipe and too much competition reduces the prices, if it is too hard, nobody can afford the price. It is a difficult balancing act. Personally, I craft for fun, to gear alts, to gear guild members who need to catch up, and to sell, in that order. Blue recipes are fairly easy to get and are fine for that purpose. Purple is the icing on the cake.

Crafting is not really designed to make a single item for oneself. It is intended to be exclusive and the compensation is the ability to sell on the AH or equip guild members. Comparing the time to obtain the recipe with the time to get the PvP item is not really fair. I haven't played a MMO yet where crafting one item just for myself is a good investment in time and money and it shouldn't. Otherwise, everyone would just craft gear for themselves and there would be zero incentive to use the AH or even group. That said, some crafting disciplines could use some love, I agree.

I am addicted to meters in games that have them. I am glad that SWTOR doesn't have them, yet. However, a good combat log would be nice to have. I would like to know which ability killed me and also have an idea how much damage my own abilities actually do. It is tedious to follow the numbers on the HUD. There is only room for 2 dps in a 4 man group. It is pretty obvious if one or both are not doing enough dps. If that happens, disband, find new people or play with guildies.

Not sure how you are reading that out of my post. For me it was primarily an aesthetic decision and has nothing to do with who I perceive to be the best healer. Guns and healing just don't mix well for me. I wouldn't go so far. I chose Sage and knew what I was getting into, that it would be a purely ranged class. Playing it, I just like using the saber from time to time, which is otherwise a fairly useless appendix of my arm. Using the force does not require a LS. It wouldn't hurt the class, balance, the game at all if using the LS would be a somewhat sup-par and more dangerous alternative to doing ranged damage, at least situationally useful, and not totally silly, as it is right now. These are the public forums. We are not arguing with Bioware, we are just discussing with other forum posters what we perceive as shorcomings of a class, opinions, not fact, and mostly a matter of taste.

Well said. Sages have melee attacks and to exaggerate a bit: all they do is produce a whooshing sound and some fire works. For some that is hard to accept, especially since those attacks were somewhat useful at lower level.

People don't care about which mechanics works best for them when they roll a character. They care about the "role" they want to play. Personally, a scoundrel (or trooper) is unacceptable as a healers, simply because he wields a gun. Yes, it is possible to call this narrow-minded but I and probably many others don't roll a character for optimum end-game performance using a certain play style. They want to play a healing Jedi in light armor who actually uses his LS. I am sure this has been discussed in Beta endlessly. People must be getting really tired hearing those arguments again and again.