^^^ This.

I agree that pvp could use some tweaking - My lower level Sage is 10x as fun to pvp with as my JK. When I play with a healer buddy it helps some. 1v1 in world pvp can be fun with the jk but you really have to work for it. The chaos of the arenas is not so fun. My earlier posts were strictly related to the OP regarding PvE.

It sounds like the trooper needs a nerf - this game is already pretty easy mode at least under 50. Maybe the level 50 content is more challenging?

Good luck!

I have a level 37 guardian and die very rarely. I used Kira exclusively until I got Doc. Now with Doc I kill stuff a little slower but end fights at full health. In solo content I can't remember the last time I died. When I die I almost always can pinpoint what happened. I missed an interrupt, pulled two groups accidentally, had my fingers on the wrong keys, etc. So I'm puzzled why others struggle so much. I'm a decent player with mmo experience but I'm not a pro by any means. I'm wondering if you're not gearing right or not upgrading gear fast enough? I'm artifice so I make my own offhands, enhancements, and cystals and usually have the purple or blue (if the purple refuses to proc) version of the next upgrades ready one level beforehand. If it's not gear maybe a build issue like an unorthodox hybrid? If neither of these then I'd guess you're missing some fundamentals like using riposte on cooldown, etc.

Valis was a fun fight and definitely not too hard. If you're having trouble I'm going to guess you're new to mmos or never raided in other mmos. Not to worry, this fight is designed to teach you some of those skills. The key is to use all of the abilities available to you at the right times. This fight is good to teach you a little about how to use a variety of skills in combination. Skills you'll need later on. Others have given lists of things to do - my advice is to really read through your skills and think about what's killing you and what skill you have that can help with that. Adjusting beyond the "tank and spank" boss is something that makes mmo's fun. Things aren't working the way they have for other bosses? Take a sec and think it through. Also use your interrupts.

Agreed on the kiting and my Seer isn't 50 so I can't speak to that yet. However in 1v1 situations outside of group pvp it still feels like something isn't quite right at the lower levels.

Where it's hardest is out in the wild. Running around the Dune Sea at level 26 my Seer ran into a level 28 Sith (forget which class) - I expected it to be a tough fight since he had 2 levels on me but it felt pretty one sided as he squashed me quicker than I thought he should. I've played on PvP servers in different games for over 10 years and agree it feels like we need a tweak of some sort. If I can keep guys off me in PuG PvP matches my healing is great. I don't think we need more/bigger heals. Just more survivability.

I am female and play a female consular and the gear is way too ugly/girly for me. For the love of all that is good and holy BioWare please make non-ugly healer gear. The one thing I hated about my healer in WoW was how stupid the gear looked. Please be better than WoW and give healers good looking gear!!!!

I think it takes more thought to understand/manage upper hand than a lot of people are willing to deal with. There are a lot of things to remember to use and if you don't use them all you're not going to perform well. I really enjoy my scoundral - I play the middle sneaky tree with her and have three gathering crafts that supply my other characters. She is a little squishier than any other character I play but that's part of the fun.

Look at his stats. When I looked at his stats for defense shield doesn't even show up even though he was equipped with a nice purple shield my guardian made him. Also if I remember right his offensive stats were showing AIM as his high stat even though he was being outfitted with tanking gear. I'm pretty sure he's just fundamentally broken - like they have the wrong base stats programmed for him. I'm going to recheck when I get home from work but for a melee tank, the stats don't even show up like they do for my Guardian. As though they aren't there or aren't being used. Please everyone open a ticket - so our squeaky wheels can get greased. EDIT: Also it's possible, based on reading this thread, that he's not broken for everyone or not always broken. He is definitely broken for my Scoundrel who is going up the middle tree (the sneaky tree, I forget what it's called).

Orange isn't necessarily better or the best. Orange is different than green, blue, purple. Orange in SW:TOR means mod-able. So you can keep the same look for 50 levels if you want by simply upgrading the mods. Depending on your current mods a green piece could be better than your orange piece. The level of your orange piece (for base armor) is based n the level of one of your mods (enhancement, maybe, I forget). Generally you can only mod Orange gear. You can put augments in some crafted greens/blues/purples. These crit when they were made and the crit adds an augment slot.

Thanks for the guide and the debate. It'll be interesting to see how things get tweaked and what builds become standard. I hadn't thought of such a hybrid but you make a lot of good points and it looks interesting. Worth trying for sure - if for no other reason than to practice being a yo-yo.

I have a darkside Sentinel. First I disagree that you have to be an ahole. My character actually is sort of protective of people, respects her leaders, loves T-7, and fights for the Republic. I've only made one light side choice so far. T-7 doesn't always like my answers but much of the time he's fine with them and I think he's probably the toughest one to play with as dark side. For example on Tython I was very respectful to the Jedi leaders but I didn't deal with betrayal well at all. That's totally unacceptable and I killed the young Matriarch because she betrayed Orgus. So depending on how you see yourself you can make a lot of decisions your companions like but when you choose a darkside decision (one with the red symbol) sometimes companions won't like it, sometimes they don't care. I did somthing dark side with Kira yesterday and she just said "Oh you're one of THOSE Jedi. Ok good to know" but didn't give me any negative points. Don't get me wrong until you get the guy at the end it's probable that you'll have more negatives with your companions than you would as light side, but it won't prevent you from making progress on their affection bars. Also I went Biochem on my darkside sentinel and so the diplomacy options help when you want to make a rare light side decision. You just do some darkside missions and all is well.

I expect some of the FP to have a lot of story and others to be simpler with fun boss mechanics. They only can produce so much and when they do something with a lot of story I want it to be good. I wouldn't want to have nothing while we wait for the next voice acted piece to be added. For launch week I've been completely happy with the content. I really enjoyed Hammer Station. As a tank the last boss was surprisingly interesting for a level 18ish instance.

Agreed T-7 is great! I wish he had a little different dialogue when he returns from dark side diplomacy missions. It''s a little weird to have him go off to convince the Hutt''s to kill someone and then be so cheery on his return.

And here I was worried there wouldn''t be enough options with the hood up. I love the hood up and don''t think I''d even use a hood down option. I definitely would not shelve my Guardian because of it, rofl.

These are good - other thoughts if you think Hammer Station is hard: Are you using all of your abilities? We got him in two tries with a group of level 19-20s chars. The first try was figuring out his mechanics. I tanked with a Jedi Guardian - facing boss away from group and interupting his long channeled attack with force kick really helped. Also is your tank coordinating with your healer and using his/her cooldowns at the right points? Are they getting 5 stacks of sunder up (for Guardians)? Finally don't stand on bombs any more than you'd stand in fire.

Don't worry - soon enough you can make your own memories.

As the raging quiets for the evening lets take a moment to go back in time and recall the adventures of another young lad who was not very patient.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCNJRfSZBU

A lot of you are on the path to the Dark Side. Patience my young padawan. Also.... The Pandas are STILL on Fire!!

OH NOES!! The Pandas are on Fire!

Besides it's really hard for them to get the emails out when the Devs Are On Fire.

Also, for everyone asking for an estimated date range they gave you one. Sometime between today and the 19th. And yes it's too much to ask to be more specific. If they told you they guessed you would get in tomorrow and you went off to work or school and then they were ahead of schedule and sent you your email while you were away you'd be pissed they misled you. The only way for them to get you in as fast as possible is to just do it as fast as possible. There's no way for them to predict what unforseen issues might come up on the production servers.

Take a breath. Relax. We all want to play - you'll likely be playing by the 15th which was what you were originally offered. It's not disorganized, doing something on this large of a scale is hard. Unless you've been part of an mmo launch you have no idea. So shhhhhhh. It'll all be ok soon.