You are lying when you claim you cleared Hard Mode Dragon Soul the 2nd week it was out. Because no one in the entire world cleared hard mode Dragon Soul the 2nd week it was out. Not on 10, not on 25. It was the 3rd reset that anyone cleared it. And unless you're in the top three guilds in the world, you didn't clear it on the 3rd reset either. Furthermore, at this point, less than 100 guilds in the entire world have cleared Dragon Soul on Hard Mode. The patch came out like 2 months ago. Compare this to SWTOR where people cleared Nightmare Karagga's Palace the first day of the patch, and I don't think you can really say SWTOR raids are harder than the WoW ones.

The problem as of right now really isn't that Hidden Strike does too much damage. The problem is that Hidden Strike stacks with Jarring Strike and Acid Blade. In WoW Rogue terms, it's as if you had one super opener that combined Ambush, Cheap Shot, and Garrotte. It's obvious that something like that is going to be overpowered. It's also not a very fun game design to have just one opener to use in every single situation. My suggested changes would be this: 1. Leave Hidden Strike damage as is. As long as it doesn't stack with those other two abilities, it's fine. 2. Change the Jarring Strike talent so instead of it being a stun added on to Hidden Strike, it's a separate ability. Just a 3s stun opener that does small damage, which you can use from stealth. 3. Change Acid Blade so it procs off of Backstab only. NOT Hidden Strike. This will keep Operative PvE DPS at almost the same level it currently as, while at the same time ensuring there isn't a ridiculous amount of burst.

I just recently started PvPing as Deception (previously I had gotten all the way to like Valor rank 45 as Darkness), but I don't really have huge survivability problems. Sure, it's not like when I was tank spec and I can hold off like 4-5 enemies at once for a decent period of time. But I still don't feel like I die a great deal w/ Deception. I do die a little bit more, but I feel like I can get away pretty effectively. And I still have moments where I can win a 2v1.

Yeah, it would be nice if we had armor that made us look like, you know, assassins. It will be somewhat mitigated by fully moddable gear at some point, I guess.

To the OP: 1. You should always use Tallos when doing solo PvE content with strongs/elites. That being said, you shouldn't end the fight at 50% unless you aren't using any CCs and/or aren't killing the weaker mobs first. While our armor percentage is a bit lower than Powertechs or Juggernauts, we make up for it with a higher HP (3% endurance) and much higher shield generation. 2. Unfortunately, most classes and specs seem to have this same problem. Watching buffs really sucks in this game, that is just a problem with the UI that maybe they'll fix. But here are a few suggestions that will make things easier: 1. Dark Ward is off the GCD. You can use it whenever as long as you have the Force to do so. It also lasts 20s, not 12. 2. I would suggest only using Discharge on harder enemies. On normal pulls there's not much point since it does pitiful damage, and you aren't taking enough damage to make it necessary. 3. If I'm doing a fight where I want all the buffs/debuffs for damage reduction, I basically open with Wither, then Discharge, then Dark Ward. If you do this, what will happen is when the Wither debuff is about to fall off, your Discharge should also be coming off cooldown. At this point, you can hit Wither, then Discharge, then Dark Ward in succession and all three will be refreshed right before they wear off. The only consideration is Dark Ward may drop more quickly if you're fighting several enemies which attack quickly. But for the most part it's not a big deal. 4. Harnessed Darkness is not really a necessary talent to pick up, unless you're going to be PvPing in tank spec. That will save some headache on watching procs.

We were having a lot of problems trying to get the hard mode to work for Boarding Party yesterday. As a general rule of thumb, if you have the [Flashpoint] quest for a particular flashpoint, you will not be able to acquire do hard mode flashpoints. So you need to drop all of those quests first. HOWEVER, some of the flashpoints have a pre-requisite that you get another quest before you can access the flashpoint, so you don't want to drop those quests. Black Talon, Battle for Ilum, and False Emperor don't have any pre-requisites. So all you need to do is make sure you don't have the [Flashpoint] quest, and talk to the droid/alien in front of the zone in for the flashpoint. He should give you an option to pick either Hard or Normal, so pick Hard and you're good to go. It's also worth noting that all three of these can be completed, though the 2nd boss in Battle for Ilum, and the last boss for False Emperor are pretty tough on Hard mode. On Black Talon, if you save the captain you will be rewarded with a chest that has level 11 loot, so that's bugged. Directive 7 requires you to have a separate quest. You can get this quest from the humanoid droid in the Galactic Trade area, it is called Immediate Vengeance. He will tell you to go talk to a Moff on Ziost Shadow, so go talk to the Moff. Once you complete talking to the Moff, you will now also get a [Flashpoint] quest. If you drop this [Flashpoint] quest, you will then be able to talk to the droid in front of the zone in to get Hard mode. Note that you DON'T want to drop the other Directive 7 quest you got in Galactic Trade. If you drop that you'll be locked out of the flashpoint altogether. I have heard conflicting reports that the loot chest at the end is bugged here also, but I'm not sure. Boarding Party requires you to have the Call to Arms quest. Go to White Nova, talk to the astromech droid. It will give you Boarding Party. Then talk to the Moff inside the group phase, and you will get the [Flashpoint] quest. Drop the [Flashpoint] quest (but keep Call to Arms), and you will now be able to talk to the Imperial in front of the instance to select Hard Mode. Currently, Boarding Party is somewhat a waste of time due to the fact that the final bosses' chest is bugged, and will not open. So if you do this dungeon, just kill the first few bosses, but don't bother clearing to the last one until they fix the chest. The Foundry is the only hard flashpoint which requires you to have done another flashpoint. Once you complete Boarding Party (either on normal or hard), your Call to Arms quest will update. Go talk to the Moff inside the Group Phase again, and he will then give you the [Flashpoint] quest for the Foundry. Drop that quest (but keep Call to Arms), and then talk to the person in front of the Foundry phase. You will now also be to do the Foundry on Hard Mode. Most people say that the Foundry is nearly impossible due to a 2 minute enrage timer on the final boss. As far as I'm aware, none of the other Flashpoints have a hard mode right now.

There is an option in the UI settings to have it show the light side/dark side logo next to the dialog choice.

They only went up to about Oct 2nd. I'm Oct 8th and did not get in yet.