Absolutely not. What I am saying, actually, is that being a Jedi or a Sith is not the end-all, be-all in the Star Wars universe. That the value of the story, is that a person can achieve heroic deeds without relying solely upon magical-abilities, I mean. To be a hero is sometimes even more exceptional, when you don't have the Force to fall back on, rather. Although pay very close attention to what's been repeated endlessly in every single description of the Force since Star Wars was first announced -- that the Force is in EVERYTHING and a part of EVERYONE, that it binds us and surrounds us always. What exactly is the nature of the Force, then, when it comes to a Smuggler or Bounty Hunter?

What the OP seems to be discomfited by, is what exactly pleases me the very most. It's the sense that the Force isn't going to choose a "hero" based on any sort of parameter that we might most expect. That the hero is very often the least likely to rise up and accomplish something great and awesome. Or that the greatest potential comes from the most unlikely person. There's a great, great line in the Smuggler story, that I absolutely love. It comes during the Corellia arc, when that Jedi is tasking my Smuggler to go in there and do something amazing. And my guy rolls his eyes and looks back at her, saying, "I don't know where you Jedi get this notion of me being 'the only one who can do this' ... I'm just a guy with a ship, lady." Because let's face it, he's so much correct. But the very fact he is so totally unlikely is precisely what makes his accomplishments so danged amazing. He doesn't swing the Force around like it's a lollipop, doesn't swear up and down how friggin' amazing he is -- he just buckles down and does what he can, and somehow manages to accomplish it. Whatever IT is. That's the thing Lana comes looking for; not the incredible heroic power, but the sheer ability to overcome whatever challenge is put there in front of the hero and no matter how impossible the odds really are. Heck, maybe that's what Valkorian is really saying in Chapter 12, when he responds to the hero's demand, "You don't know what I'm really capable of." And Valkorian says, "Neither do you. That's precisely the problem." Let's face it. Too many people fool themselves into believing that heroic deeds can only be accomplished through miraculous powers. But that's merely the illusion really holding you back, in the end. In the meantime, my guy with the ship is going to do some amazing stuff. Just watch.

<Covenant of the Phoenix> will be making a run on the +10 datacron on the Imperial Fleet tomorrow, 23 May, at 9pm EDT, as part of our regularly scheduled Guild Night activitiy. Once all of our Sorcs are in position, we'll make calls out to the Fleet's general chat for players who want to get their characters through to the 'Cron. Keep an eye out!

It was only 10 million?! Wow.

Add to this, Starparse can be a good gauge to determine which healer needs to perhaps improve their rotation. Some healers, it's a question of gear, maybe. The healer who just got to 65 is going to be struggling just to manage their energy, perhaps. Sometimes though, the healer isn't using the best abilities when they really need to be utilized. Use it as a tool, is all. Not a bludgeon, shrug.

We would appreciate some attention to this issue. Soon. Like really soon.

Did you get the soundcloud recording we made of the #birdscream?

Funny story: I once recruited a young guy into our guild, using my Main character on the Republic side. So he gets into Mumble, to get to know us better and I tell him how it was me who just recruited him. Mind you, my main is a male Sawbones Scoundrel. Funny enough, of my 14 level-65 characters exactly half are male and half are female characters but the ones I play the most are the male toons. So this guy gets into Mumble and literally gasps aloud: "But you're not a guy! Why are you playing a guy character?!" I still laugh my rear off when I think of him. I play for the story, more than anything. And if I think the story fits a male character better than a female character, that's what I play. Humans are my favorite species, mind you. But my Sage is a Miraluka, my Shadow is a Mirialan, and my Vanguard is a Cathar. Again, I think they're better species story-wise for those characters. I do love the Smuggler story, so I have a lot of smugglers. Five in total that I've leveled to end-game Operations' adventures; although I deleted 1 a couple years ago. My Smugglers are invariably males, because I think the story is better with male Smugglers than females. I would think humans are the most common species. I'm going out on a limb when I suppose that Rattataki are the rarest species, but that's because I really don't care for the look of the species AT ALL so I'm biased. Not sure about the class, because I've always been in guilds that have a good mix of all the classes and people enough who claim favorite classes that others don't care for. Have a guildie now who plays Consular over and over again; I play Smugglers all the time; and another one of my guildies really enjoys the Trooper class a lot. Heh, to each their own, right?

I think Turin said it better than I can. I'm typically a good healer. My tanking is ... decent. And my DPS outright stinks. So take everything I say with those grains in mind. Much of my perceptions tends to come from my perspective as a healer, who typically stands nearby rather than in the middle of the combat. As a healer, my primary job is to keep the team from falling over. So what makes me good in my task, is when everyone on the team is still standing at the end of the fight. That means, I have to be good enough to stay out of trouble myself, so that I don't fall over firstly. I can't heal if I'm lying there, anyway. Then I have to keep my heals rolling pretty constantly, which as a Scoundrel healer I hate, hate it when people yell at me for my effective heal rate. Scoundrels are always healing, as we depend on HOTs staying constant. Don't throw Parse in my face, anyway. My actual heal rate is impressive enough, I think. Also, don't ask my Scoundrel to perform over-well in burst healing --that's where my Commando shines, rather. All that is my way of saying, that I figure I'm a good healer when I quickly and effectively get my heals out there so that the team doesn't die. Period. When I am tanking, though, the greatest thing I can do is KNOWING how the fight is going to work so that I can control the course. It's about getting the timing down, knowing when to taunt and where to be standing, or not, when I do taunt. Bottom line, my tank is supposed to keep the enemies positioned properly so that they die the quickest we can manage. As for DPS ... there are no words to describe how much I stink at DPS. Everyone keeps telling me how easy it is, and I just shake my head in bewilderment. I can tell you what I've seen from DPS that I consider "needs improvement", rather. What frustrates me, as a healer or a tank, is when DPS isn't "enough". Only the DPS player insists they're so much awesome and I just stink at healing/tanking, is all. Hint: when the boss enrages at 20% health regardless of the whole team standing up and no one falling over dead AND the boss and/or adds are positioned correctly -- then it is NOT an issue with the healing or tanking. Just sayin', that I can almost never heal or tank enough through an enrage. (there are exceptions, but testing your healers and tanks is a good way to never get a healer or tank to group with you again) So a good DPS should be doing A LOT of damage to the internet monsters. They should be staying far away from brightly colored circles of stupid on the ground. They should be casting interrupts quickly and methodically whenever the internet monsters are casting. They should be following the directions of the Ops leader and/or tank. And more than anything else -- they should be moving quick through the fight to where their damage is most effective. Which is a lot to do, mind you. And likely why I do stink at DPS, hehe. But to be more concise, consider Turin's post again.

<Covenant of the Phoenix> is always recruiting. I tend to think we annoy people with how much we recruit, hehe. But we manage to maintain a large, active group of players, too. So consider taking a gander our way anytime. We're on both sides of the game, although we're more active on the Republic-side. Here is our weekly schedule of events on our forums: COTP SWTOR chapter's Events & Schedule Here is our latest recruitment video: Here is the video showing our primary Guild Ship (we have 6 now, lol): COTP Guild Ship And here's our Community forums, too: Covenant of the Phoenix forums Welcome to the Shadowlands, wherever you decide to play! Nice meeting you!

I played the closed Beta. Made a smuggler, and leveled her as far as possible. Had her on Voss when the game launched, and that only because Voss was so glitched you couldn't MOVE across or even LEAVE the planet. Now that I consider it, that might be the true reason why I continue to despise the Voss to this day. Those colorful jerks left me out there in a field, turning in circles, and singing, "Hey, let me outta here!" Seriously. I've leveled a total of 4 Smugglers (But deleted 1), 3 Warriors, 2 Knights, 2 Consulars, 2 Troopers, 2 Inquisitors, 2 Hunters, and 1 amazing Agent (who can never be recreated, he's THAT much perfection). And I'm still alt-ing. This game just continues to please me, enough I never go far off for long ... wait, do side adventures through Mass Effect and Dragon Age count? I figure, play what you have fun playing. So yea. That makes you welcome, right?

Yea, I didn't really suffer any of the angst using Double XP. But I stuck almost totally to Story when it came to my leveling this time. I did use XP boosts, including the "class mission" boosts under Character Perks. But I didn't use any flashpoints or Operations runs, and no PVP battles, either. I just played the Story-line on my own, and had some decent enough fun. With Double XP it allowed me the pacing I needed to get some nice images and see the various stories from new angles, so I was happy.

My run through the Eternal Championship, and eventually my timed run for the competition will be too, was with my Sawbones-specced Scoundrel. I used my Nexu companion, and spent a lot of the fights trying to determine whether to use my companion as a tank or DPS. Some of the fights, like the 10th, were far more effective with the Nexu tanking and keeping the boss occupied while I destroyed the droids and tossed out my Kolto Cloud to keep us both topped-off. Other fights, though, like the 7th -- those were more a DPS race to kill the bosses as quick as possible or end up being overwhelmed. I played around until I figured out which was which. It was fun, mind you. I'm really hoping to see what sort of time I can best manage, at least before the competition is done. I'd love showing healers can be effective enough, when all's said and done. But I'm more cheering on my guildmate in the competition; because he's amazing when it comes to playing whatever class and spec you hand him. I don't believe he's venturing in there with a healer, hehe.

I set a personal challenge for myself, during this particular Double XP week. I mean, typically I create a new character to run through Double XP periods with, see how far I can get them. But this time around, I opted to see just how many of my mid-level characters I could get "topped off" and then looking over my list of characters, I set a personal goal of 5 separate characters. Now considering where some of them "started" at the opening of the challenge, you'd assume it wasn't so big a deal, really. Having played the game so long as I have, I'm pretty good about picking what adventures I want to take a character in order to maximize their leveling, at least. But this was one single week. AND there were other in-game tasks I wanted to explore, too. Not the least of which was Eternal Championship and nabbing Bowdaar for my Main character. But my husband would've killed me if I absolutely never left the computer, too. For some reason, he enjoys spending real time with me. Although Mother's Day proved a valuable opportunity for me to claim "I deserve to relax!" and he let me play pretty much the whole day, lol. Regardless of the difficulties, though, I managed to succeed. And 5 new level 65 characters joined my game's list: (1) Jedi Sentinel -- starting level 56 (2) Smuggler Gunslinger -- starting level 57 (3) Jedi Shadow -- starting level 60 (4) Trooper Vanguard -- starting level 54 (5) Sith Marauder -- starting level 26 I'm biased, mind you. But I do think they look pretty good together: Screenshot Line-up Hey, what about you guys? Anyone else manage some heady leveling this week?

I loved Gault when I met him with my neutral-aligned Bounty Hunter. And I loved him when I met him in CH 13 with my Scoundrel, too. He's funny, amusing as heck, and blatantly naughty. Which is funny. I thought his relationship with Hylo was extraordinarily well-presented, with its amusing bantering bent. And I truly appreciated that they didn't even fix his broken horn when my guy was off in carbonite. Gault's awesome. Nope. ... Kaliyo's CH10 is my own kryptonite. I struggle to get through that chapter every time I go in there, sigh.

No. It wasn't. It was originally described as an opportunity for newer players or players returning to the game, to have a space where they could "learn" Operations-mechanics in arena-style focused fights that could net them basic-level gear in preparation for Operations. As I understood it, the Eternal Championship was a valuable tool for players looking to stick their toes into Operations-style gameplay, without earning the ire of groups that often expect everyone to "already know" how to play their character and class before moving through the big, shiny doorway. For me personally, I'm using the Eternal Championship as an arena to hone skills in classes I've leveled up but not really played regularly enough to be comfortable in a real competitive hard-mode Operation with; so I'm pretty happy with it. Mind you, I did venture in there with my favorite Scoundrel and cleared it pretty simply. But so what? THAT character was wearing my full Legacy set, complete with 224s and augments in every slot AND the experience to back it up. I don't imagine taking my brand new end-game Marauder through the Eternal Championship is going to be half so easy, on the other hand.

We're making a run on Xenoanalyst this Monday night, 9pm EDT, to close out this week's Gree Event. Make sure to join in the fun, if you get a chance! Covenant of the Phoenix enjoys weekly events with Guild Night, every Monday night at 9pm EDT. We play fun games, races and puzzles all over the Galaxy, and grab some of those harder-to-achieve World Bosses and even datacrons together. Make sure to check out our weekly schedule whenever you can: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/topic/30199-events-and-activities-schedule/

I do remember that group-system, actually! Glad to see you back in-game, btw! Feel free to touch base with COTP at any time, if you're interested in forming a more cohesive grouping-system for Operations and PVP. We do have a schedule of events on-tap, that we maintain weekly. But we still enjoy grouping up with others, too. Contact me in-game any time, Nee: Gaibriel Duncan (Republic) or Khyriel Phyre (Empire).

Guild Name: Covenant of the Phoenix Faction: Primarily Republic but some Empire Focus: PVE operations, PVP nightly, and casual fun stuff Guild Website: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/ GM ign: Co-Leaders Gaibriel Duncan & Krazy Lazy

I was actually very pleased, when my Smuggler discussed Akaavi with Bowdarr -- he actually mentions a desire for family with her. It was very sweet, even as amusing a fashion my Smuggler offered it. But he's just cute like that, so I was happy overall.

Wow amazing work. Thanks for sharing.

Keep this event in mind, if you're looking for some adventures and able to nab some cool items!

Hello, Kfab! <Covenant of the Phoenix> has a rather laid-back approach to Operations at the moment. Meaning that we have some seasoned, experienced raiding members of our guild, willing to work with newer members as they ease into Operations. They'll point out some tips and tricks that help get members caught up to par, at least. I say that, as someone who's DPS isn't so keen and my guildmates do take the time to help me when I need it. If you're willing to look around some more, that's cool enough. Or check us out anytime: Our forums: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/ New Member Basic Info: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/topic/44809-welcome-to-cotp-new-member-basic-info/ Our cool Guild Ship video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqelStA8kbY And our latest recruitment video:

We're celebrating Founders Week from now, through to 03 April. It's time for us to acknowledge those who first established <Covenant of the Phoenix> -- a multi-game community that has spanned multiple games throughout its years since 1994. Among the adventures we share during this week are countless contests and games, and the SWTOR chapter is glad to announce its first in-game challenge during this 2016 Founders Week to its members. We are hosting a MEME Contest, with members well able to host on our forums those MEME screen pictures that demonstrate the humor and fun we get up to while playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. In celebration, we would like to share our best humor with all of you. So feel free to visit our forums, check out the various contests and rememberings we're sharing together, and just look around. <Covenant of the Phoenix> is a lively, engaging group of friends, family and community, so take a gander. SWTOR Founders Week Meme Contest: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/topic/47855-its-the-founders-week-meme-contest-check-this-out/ COTP 2016 Founders Week Forums: http://www.covenantofthephoenix.com/forums/

We currently manage quite a few number of guilds, eight in total. Five are located on the Republic side of the game and three on the Empire; but we stay in touch using a custom chat channel and all of our guilds are called Covenant of the Phoenix. It's always easy to find us! We have a couple of guild members focused on making our guild ships look amazing; and kudos to both of them: Starkindred and Geekgirl have been incredible in allocating our rooms and decorations among our Fleet of ships. Check out the video we put together showing our guild's ship, Ember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqelStA8kbY We are focused on having fun in everything that we do! Check us out!