It is getting frustrating. At this point I'm just buying the eliminator gear. Has anyone received a response indicating a time frame for when this will be resolved?

I suggest the following: 1) Use Ion Gas Cylinder. The extra protection if affords you in PvE is excellent and your damage will still be high as AP. Along the same lines, if you dont have a shield generator on, put one on (gives you +5% shield, +20% absorption). 2) You have two options with Skadge, (a) set him to his dps stance and guard him or (b) set him to his tank stance and let him do his thing (note with (b) he will live longer but with (a) he will dish out more damage). I would recommend (b) as Skadge's gear will probably be garbage and the extra dps he will put out in dps stance is probably not as valuable as the extra longevity he will have in tank stance.