Thank you very much, that is helpful. One follow-up question: what does it mean if a guild is in "inactive" status (other than losing the rights to the name)? Does the guild still exist, and then as soon as one of the members logs in again it becomes active? If there were funds in the guild bank, are those funds still there? I am thinking about creating a very small guild with a few people, and we tend to be "MMO hoppers." So we might play SWTOR daily for the next 6 months, and then may move on to another MMO and not log in to SWTOR for another two years. So I'm trying to figure out if it is worth it to create a guild, or if there is not much point if the guild and all it has evaporates after a month without being logged in.

So I am a recent returnee to the game after a long time (5+ years) away. Can someone point me to accurate, up-to-date info about the process for creating a guild and basically all I need to know about them? I've seen references to different types of guilds...subscriber guilds vs. f2p guilds. I have seen threads where someone said they were the GM and then there was an issue with their credit card and the instant they went to fp2 they were no longer GM of the guild. But it's hard to make sense of everything. Is there one place I can look and get answers?

Thanks for all the tips, everyone. Much appreciated. Following advice, I did create another Jedi Shadow (and the corresponding Sith) and played both up until about level 15-20 just to build up my knowledge of the skills again.Then went back to my old character, trained the missing skills, figured out the Discipline system and utility skills, and went out there. Did some of those Heroics on lower planets, got those blue gear boxes, and felt like I was starting to get the hang of things again. So recently jumped into the Hutt cartel questline and am currently lvl 55 and having fun with that. Only thing I've had trouble with (and maybe this should be a separate thread) is that now I am soloing as a DPS spec, I am wanting my companion to mostly heal. But I find their healing abilities are very different. Even when I set them explicitly to heal mode, I am finding some do a MUCH better job. Quezyn (sp?) and Zenith I'm very happy with. Nadia... worthless. Again, even when I have her set on heal mode, she spends 90% of her time swinging her dang lightsaber around and almost no time healing me. Trying to figure out why that is. She would be my first choice for companion if she would actually heal, but I'm finding my survivability with either the big lizard or Zenth is much greater than with her. (With the other companions somewhere in between.) Any ideas on that? Anyways, thanks to all of your advice, I am very much enjoying being back in the game and feeling reasonably successful.

Hi all, Subject line says it all. After 4 or more years away, I just returned to the game. My max toon is a 50 Jedi Shadow (back from when that was level cap). Back when I played I was in a guild and we did FP's, operations, etc. so he is geared as a tank. Mix of orange and purple pieces that were, I think, reasonably good (back at the time). Given the way there is "stat inflation" in most MMO's, I have no idea if it is considered good, even for a level 50, now. And in any case, my guild is long since gone and, quite honestly, I'm mostly interested--in the short term--in soloing. I've specced into the Infiltration discipline, but again, most of my gear is more tanking gear. I've got about 800k credits. From a quick glance of prices on the auction house, or the prices for most strongholds, that doesn't seem like very much. For crew skills I have synthweaving, archaeology, and underworld trading, all three at or just under 400. (I am thinking 400 must have been cap on those back when I was playing). Have some alts with other crew skills, but don't think any of those are higher than about 200. I have two alts around lvl 25, and then a handful more barely off the starter worlds. Social rank 3 and Valor rank 19, almost 20, if either of those are useful. (I don't particularly enjoy pvp, though I did a fair amount with my guild as many of them loved it.) I have 612 fleet commendation, again, if that is at all useful. I don't see any "storyline" quest in my quest log, so I am thinking I finished up the storyline from the original SWTOR before I stopped playing. Where to begin? Obviously I need to re-learn how to play and get back the muscle memory of the various skills. But besides that... is there a new storyline I can pick up somewhere? (I am subbing, so I think that means I get access to the expansions.) Do I need to try to gear up some before doing that? Are there major new "things" added to the game I am missing out on entirely? Any tips or pointers are most appreciated.

1. It is only usable with a companion, and only when you are in your Heroic Moment (1 minute skill on a 20 minute cooldown). 2. Haven't scoured the list in detail, but from a tanking shadow perspective, probably the JK's Force Sweep would be the most useful. Or at least something whose use is immediately apparent.

I think this response says it all.

CAn't give advice for those playing Infiltration, I've never done it. For those playing Combat technique as a tanking spec, I found for 95% of the content what helped me was the best DPS companion I had access to. Early on your only option for that is Qyzen.

They've run some mathematical modeling of the different sage specs using the current Update 1.2 numbers (from test server) and the net result is that full Telekinetics build and full Balance build output almost perfectly equivalent DPS on a lone target over a long (5+ minute) fight. Though it wasn't tested, I am pretty sure Telekinetics would still come out ahead of Balance on multi-target fights and on the question of burst damage. That being said, the "price" Telekinetics pays for that is being much less mobile than Balance due to the number of attacks that have cast-time bars (induction bars). That is, in general, not a huge issue in PvE (with the exception of some boss fights here & there, e.g. Mentor in D7) but it can be a real factor in PvP. It is also worth noting that, even though the hybrid Tel/Bal build (0/13/28) was nerfed some with 1.2, it still puts out slightly more (~ 2.8% more) DPS than either of the pure builds. As a hybrid between the two, it is less mobile (but more bursty and AoE-y) than Balance, and more mobile (but less bursty) than Telekinetics.

The problem with that idea is that the self-healing is a big part of what makes shadow/sin tanks viable as endgame operation/HM main tanks. Overall our defense/durability right now is less than an equally-geared Guardian/Jugg or Vanguard/PT tanks, but it is our self-healing from Harnessed Shadows that makes up for that. If you increase the "stack demand" from 3 to 5 in order to trigger the self-healing, then essentially you nerf that self-healing by 40%, which is a pretty big hit. Seems to me if you did that, you would HAVE to increase the defensive side of shadows/sins some (whether through increasing their armor rating multiplier that the tank stance gives or some other means) to make up for it and put them closer to being on-par with the other two tanking classes in terms of survivablity. If you don't do something like that, then you end up breaking shadow/sin tanks in PvE for the sake of a very specialized PvP concern, and that seems backwards to me...ESPECIALLY given how the BW devs have said explicitly that they are nerfing endgame healing (across all healing classes) and "tightening" endgame bosses to make these encounters more difficult.

Are you talking about the raiders being the crybabies? Because those were the people asking for this. Typically you only need a few to make the things for yourself, I have guildies who have gobs of these things sitting in storage and nothing to do with them. I think BW made the change for people like them. So if you are running HM's and ops and no longer need them for yourself, rather than have them rot in storage and be worthless to you, you can sell them to others and make some credits. Which also addresses a second complaint of raiders, that HM's/ops don't give enough credits to make up for repair bills etc. This is another way to (effectively) increase the credit payouts for those doing endgame PvE content. A good thing, IMO.

Completely agree with that. Part of the problem is that currently the whole Resolve Bar just doesn't seem to work. I have a friend who plays a Sage and will have a FULL resolve bar and still the Imps will stunlock-stunlock-stunlock him nonstop. He's bugged it countless times but still no fix. 1. Pretty sure every class gets at least one 2 second (or longer) stun of some sort, so nothing to see there. In fact I think the basic stun most classes get is FAR longer... trooper/BH as well as smuggler/IA early on get an 8s stun (flash grenade or its equivalent names). So actually the shadow/sin one is pretty weak I think in comparison. 2. The 4 second stun (Spinning Kick) is only usable while stealthed, which means it is effectively worthless as anything but an opener for any spec unless you are a tanking spec (which gets a talent to make it usable out of stealth in Tier 5 of the tanking tree). The 9% extra damage is from yet a different talent which is also Tier 5 of the tanking tree and requires an investment of 3 additional talent points. And honestly, most shadows I know don't spec into that talent because, quite frankly, there are much better uses for those 3 talent points elsewhere in the tree. Essentially it gives the tanking shadow/sin a little extra battlefield utility in order to make up for their substantial lack of damage as compared to a DPS class. Why is this so unbalanced again?

Interesting. Normally ops don't drop random orange moddable gear at all, that is part of why I am surprised. I suppose it was a random drop on some trash mob? I know for a fact operation bosses (whether EV or KP) do not drop oranges; they only drop Tionese/Columi gear or tokens, or other equivalent items. I suppose a "gold star" trash mob along the way somewhere could drop oranges. EDIT: on and by the way, if you have a group just barely getting their feet wet with operations, EV is more forgiving one to start with than KP, at least it seems to me.

No alignment restriction, at least on any of the ones I have seen.

Are you sure it wasn't a NM False Emperor? I ask because I know for 100% certain that my shadow got the "Ultratech" chest piece from the last boss in a NM False Emperor run. I've been desperately wanting to do more NM FE runs to try to round out the set (as I love the look of the chest), but alas, no one at 50 really wants to do NM runs of anything when you can do HM for Columi gear instead...

Yeah once they add in dual specs, almost certainly my "other" spec is going to be a full balance spec. It's just that for right now I am fully tanking spec, all my gear is built for tanking, and my guild is a little low on tanks for doing endgame HM's/ops so I don't foresee speccing out of tanking anytime soon. Plus, when it comes down to it, I am a tank at heart. But I would certainly welcome the opportunity to play around with the full Balance build once dual speccing is in the game.

That all makes sense. I was just responding to your comment a few posts earlier about removing TK wave from the build, the only point I was making is that even given that it is "nerfed" in the sense of no longer being able to be instant (+20% damage), it still retains utility for a lowbie sage leveling up as it is likely the first and only AoE ability they will get for a good long while. It might be the case that in the mid/late leveling phase during one of the respecs you would recommend that they spec OUT of it. But early on its a huge help.

Personally I think it would be REALLY nice if they added more conversations into the endgame HM FP's and ops.

Centurion and Champion sets (as they exist now) will cease to exist come Update 1.2. Those who have the current gear will be able to keep them, but there will be no way to acquire those at all. They are being phased out of the game completely. Instead, you will have a "first tier" PvP set, called the Recruit set, which are level 50 blue items with no set bonus, purchasable for credits (I think someone said around 250k to buy the whole set). The stats on that set are less than the current Champion gear, but they do have more Expertise. The idea is to give people an easy-to-obtain set that has enough Expertise where they aren't getting completely facerolled even in non-ranked WZ's. I suppose you could ignore that and just work for your BM stuff, but I'm not sure I'd be thrilled with the idea of playing 50-60 WZ matches with little to no Expertise at all, which is probably what you are looking at doing before having enough commendations to get a decent amount of Expertise via BM pieces.

Pretty sure you can also get Mando Iron if you get a crit success on a regular mission. Not 100% sure on that, but right now I have 14 of them in storage and I think I have only run maybe 3 of the (UT 340 purple) missions. I honestly haven't been paying close attention though, so it could be it all came from those. I'm a Consular and so I do know that I almost always send Zenith out on my UT missions as he gets a bonus to crit rate on UT. Pretty sure there is no such thing in the game as rich/bountiful at Tier 6 UT, that the missions labeled that way are a labeling error. Something to that extent in the PTS patch notes. Yeah I've noticed that too, of all the professions synthweaving seems to be the only one (that I've run across at least) in which you literally can't be self-sufficient by taking the 2 corresponding professions listed in the codex. You CAN be self-sufficient if all you craft are light armor items, but as soon as you try to do anything that is medium or heavy armor, you require materials impossible for you to gain yourself.

Even losing more rolls, you STILL get more social points running in a full group. Let's do the math. SOCIAL POINTS EARNED OVER THE COURSE OF 60 CONVERSATIONS 2-PLAYER GROUP 30 wins x 4 pts = 120 pts 30 losses x 2 pts = 60 pts ----------------------------- Grand Total = 180 pts 3-PLAYER GROUP 20 wins x 6 pts = 120 pts 40 losses x 3 pts = 120 pts ---------------------------------- Grand Total = 240 pts 4-PLAYER GROUP 15 wins x 8 pts = 120 pts 45 losses x 4 pts = 180 pts -------------------------------- Grant Total = 300 pts So as you can see, over the course of an equal number of conversations, you gain more social points in a full group of 4 than you do in a group of 3, and more in a group of 3 than you do in a group of 2.

Yeah no doubt 1.2 is going to impact this build significantly. That being said, I wouldn't necessarily rush to eliminate Telekinetic Wave entirely. Even without the instant-cast proc, it is still the only AoE ability a sage gets pre-Forcequake (which is, what, mid-30's). I think any "leveling spec" would benefit from a decently-powerful AoE, even if stuck using it with its full cast timer. Just my $0.02, as someone who is currently leveling a sage and who is not high enough yet to have Forcequake and thus who uses Tel Wave all the time despite its cast timer.

In most 8v8 WZ scenarios, if I can take out their healer at the price of one of our DPSers (or even tanks), that's a trade I'll take every time.

I think Shadow tanking is in a really good place right now. I honestly expected that 1.2 was going to nerf us because it feels borderline-overpowered at the moment, but looking at the PTS 1.2 patch notes there are no nerfs in there for shadow tanks, which is pretty cool. Spamming Slow Time creates a lot of AoE threat, I have no problems holding AoE threat when I run HM FP's or ops unless something crazy happens (e.g. geared troopers start lobbing in mortar volleys before I've even had any chance to get good threat established; but if that happens no tank is going to be able to hold threat no matter what tanking class they are). In terms of playstyle, a shadow tank is roughly a 50/50 melee/"casting" hybrid. Maybe even over 50% casting now that I think about it. You're always tanking in melee range and Double Strike is one of your bread & butter skills, but a typical tanking rotation for me will look something like: * open with Slow Time * (usually) follow with a Force Breach * Double Strike * if PA procs, Project; if not, another Double Strike * Slow Time * once 3 stacks of Harnessed Shadows, Telekinetic Throw * repeat all of the above I've never tried a vanguard tank so I really have no idea about them. In terms of theorycrafting, they should be a very strong tank. But they seem to be much more rare than shadow or guardian tanks, so I've had very little experience doing group content with them in SWTOR.

While I could see why you would recommend that if you are talking purely about single-target damage...in the practical realm I don't see how in reality you could recommend that over the 0/13/28 that pulled that one point out of the seer tree and put it in Tele to get Telekinetic Wave. Even in operations boss fights there are times adds are up and as a DPS you have a responsibility to be taking down adds and working on the boss too. If even 1 out of every 100 GCD's called for some AoE damage, then overall the 0/13/28 is more useful than the 1/12/28. Unless there are some really strange crit multiplier things going on that I'm not considering.

This post is really worth reading. It is a description of a "leveling build" that is actually a trispec build (puts substantial talent points in all 3 trees). I don't recommend the thread to encourage you to do the precise build the author is suggesting. Rather, the beauty of that is the author describes exactly WHY at each step in the process a particular talent is suggested over another one. For someone just getting their feet wet, it is invaluable reading. Basically what I am doing is following the author's advice only not really putting anything into the healing tree, instead building a hybrid Tele/Balance DPS sage. Only around level 25 so far but I am loving it. Eventually I am aiming towards something in the ballpark of this type of 0/13/28 hybrid DPS build, though there are a few talent points here and there I am still unsure about. One thing to note is there has already been computer modeling done of Sage DPS with the Update 1.2 changes (as they exist right now on the test server.) The net result is that at least on single-target DPS over an extended period of time, the three DPS builds tested (a full 31 point Telekinetics, a full 31 point balance, and a 0/13/28 hybrid) all did within less than 3% damage of each other. So any of the three are viable DPS builds, it really comes down to what playstyle you prefer. Telekinetics has bigger burst, but comes at the price of often being rooted in place while a skill has an induction timer. Balance lacks burst but since it is based more on DoTing up targets (instant cast skills), is more mobile. And the hybrid, of course, draws from both and so is in between the two.