[Epic Solution to player Economy and Raiding]

I really don't like the decay idea because it would add an unnecessary, cumbersome aspect to manage. Depending on when you acquire the augments for various pieces of gear, you'd have to monitor various timers and the last thing you want is your items breaking in the middle of a raid. I don't want to clog my bank with extra augments and I don't want to always be stressed that my augments are breaking and I can't find the right replacements on the AH for whatever reason.

 

However, I do like the idea of the augment slot, and I think it would work even without the decay portion. Just make them slot specific. People are building different sets (PvP, PvE, 2 specs, etc.) and would probably want them for their companions too. They would be the equivalent of gems in WoW, and I know that as a JC, I was never out of work (and you don't have an army of companions to gear there).

 

This would also synergize well with a buff to Slicing focused on improving augment drops, rather than tweaking lockbox returns.

 

I think it's a good idea, overall. Thanks for posting it.

[RE- Getting more blues from the same green T.T]

You definitely can get all 3 blues from the same green. You just have to keep making the greens and RE-ing them. Don't waste your time RE-ing the Critical blues, because the only things you can get are purples based on that version.

[Is RE broke?]

As far as green --> blue is concerned, it doesn't seem to take that long with average luck, even at level 49. I've RE-ed a lot of different things for different alts and green --> blue is never a problem (at least I don't consider 5-20 tries a huge investment).

 

The problem is that blue --> purple takes a lot of time, due to the crafting timers of blue items, a lot of mats, and has 5 possible outcomes, of which some are abysmal. Even this wouldn't be as bad if the items had lasting value. As it is, they don't, so we're expected to put an inordinate amount of effort into obtaining subpar items.

 

If you simply trained these recipes and ran some missions to get the metals, it would be fine if you replaced them a few days or a week later. Under the current circumstances, it's not acceptable.

 

So either have a cap on number of RE attempts (say, max of 20 for blue --> epic), or buff the quality of the items produced.

[Legacy Surname Needs to Go!]

I think what he means is that a last name which fits a character perfectly may seem out of place for a different character. It kind of forces you to find names for your alts which work with the surname, and takes some creativity out of the character creation process. The fact that you can display it as "The X Legacy" doesn't help, because your alts can't have a surname of their own.

 

Also, there's no logical reason why characters of different races and on different factions should share a surname. If anything, it makes things awkward for RP-ers.

 

I like the surname idea, I like the legacy idea, but I too would have liked to be able to choose different surnames for my different characters. It doesn't bother me too much, though, since I chose a very neutral surname.

[I feel stuck]

there is no autoattack

 

Technically no, but everyone gets an ability which does minimal damage and doesn't consume resources. I can't remember what the Smuggler one is called. Without splitting hairs, what I meant is that if you go in full healing mode and can't spare resources for your better attacks, you can still use that one to do a bit of damage at no energy cost.

[selling account fake email info]

They don't know that you are actually playing SWTOR, by the way, but sending it a large number of email addresses (probably collected from various gaming sites and forums you may have visited and registered with). So don't feel that they have inside knowledge about you. Like the poster above said, people who don't have accounts receive them too.

 

The best way to avoid phishing scams is to create a separate email address for SWTOR and not use it for anything else. I did that with my WoW account and never received a phishing email ever again.

 

BW will never ask you for login info or password. They have their own databases and don't need your login info to see your data. Don't click on any links; make all your changes to your account directly from the main site.

 

If you're in doubt about the validity of an email you received, call customer service or post on their forum. They can tell you if the email is legit.

[I feel stuck]

I just made my Scoundrel the other day, so I'm not at that point yet. However, I find Corso to be a very strong companion compared to what my other characters got as their first. I did buy him some boots with commendations and made him a blue rifle, which probably helps a bit.

 

First thing that comes to mind - make sure that he's in tanking stance. Stances tend to get turned off randomly when you log, so manually turn it on.

 

Secondly - you can see Corso's bar to the bottom left of your screen. Click on that to select him instead of trying to click on his character, because the latter can be annoying if he's in the middle of mobs. Before you start the heal, make sure you see his portrait in your target bar. If it's empty or there's a mob selected, you'll heal yourself.

 

Start healing him early. If he's at 75%, stop what you're doing and heal him so you don't fall behind. The same applies for yourself.

 

Put grenade on the strongest mob on CD. That should help you kill the lackeys pretty fast. If you have to heal a lot and you're worried about energy, you can just autoattack and focus on healing Corso.

 

Use your aoe stun grenade whenever you need some breathing room to heal. Use the single-target stun on the small mobs if they are attacking you so you can get behind them and backblast.

 

Also, I don't know what abilities this mob uses, but if he does a lot of melee-range aoes, just stay at range, auto-attack, and heal Corso once the lackeys are down.

[Repeatable quest that awards Corelia commendations?]

Corellia commendations also drop off bosses in level 50 flashpoints. The normals are so easy, you can sleep through them; the only problem is that they take a while even if you have good DPS and zero wipes.

 

You also get them by doing the daily dungeon mission.

[Always look at creator and seller]

I understand the point of your post and why you're frustrated.

 

However, take this from someone who played the AH extensively in WoW and is for now just observing before stepping into the TOR economy: don't underprice too much. I know that you want things to sell fast and you want to make items available at fair prices, but it seems that your server has people who are already playing the GTN. The general population will never get to take advantage of your prices due to them.

 

The only thing you're doing is working for the middleman. You're the one who paid for recipes or took an opportunity cost loss by learning them instead of selling them. You're the one gathering mats and sending companions out on missions (whose cost is also covered by you). The middleman is not only making profit off your time, but has the freedom to do his own missions. So all you're doing is lining his pockets.

 

I could tell you how to discourage him or make him burn through a lot of credits, but you probably just want to quest and do other things. For now, just undercut him by smaller amounts; if he still wants to profit off you, he'll have to jack up his own prices and people might not buy at those prices.

 

Long-term, you could try a more personal approach to selling.

 

Step 1: advertise your wares in General and always add this: if it's made by you, but not posted by you, they're getting ripped off.

 

Step 2: orders by mail, goods delivered in person only to people displaying their legacy names (so if your guy wants to buy from you secretly, he'll have to pay for another account). This way, you'll always have control over who buys your items and you'll be able to safely offer prices you're comfortable with. If you're nice and reliable, they'll tell their friends, word will spread, and anyone who wants the best price will come to you instead of buying from the GTN.

[Is there a way to make my companion helmetless ?]

Pets can't equip items with requirements (social, alignment, or class).

 

However, I'm pretty sure they can equip the sets from the CE vendors.

 

The armor difference between moddable items is negligible and the only time you should care is if the pet is a tank (just to give him/her every advantage possible). A DPS/healer companion shouldn't suffer, especially if it's just one piece.

[Purple Crystals]

It hasn't been discovered. Not to say with 100% certitude that it doesn't exist, but pretty likely it doesn't exist at this point.

 

The reason for the "whining" is because the purple crystal is something that everyone wants, and only one side can get it in PvP weapons. Considering that there is no skill requirement for PvP items (only massive time investments), it doesn't feel fair.

 

The closest one would be the magenta crystal, but that one is closer to pink than purple.

[Failure should happen quicker.]

It's supposed to be a gamble if your skill and affection aren't maxed.

 

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why a companion with maxed affection and a profession-specific bonus should fail a mission at 400 skill. There is no logic in it, since you've already put in the time to max your profession and there is nothing you can do to increase your skill.

 

This, and other similarly annoying things (like the "you already know this schematic" message) are the wrong kind of carrot.

[Cybertech mods - no elusive, resilient, or shield rating?]

I've RE-ed tons of armorings and mods of various levels, for my alts, and I haven't come across any evidence that their RE progression is not linear. You cannot discover new types of mods - only improved versions of the trainer ones.

 

So the lack of tanking modifications is a problem - like I said before, either an oversight, or a matter of intentionally not putting them in. I cannot fathom why, however, since we get tanking earpieces for every main stat, and other professions get implants/armor/weapons.

[Cybertech mods - no elusive, resilient, or shield rating?]

There are no recipes for green armorings/mods with tanking stats that we can learn and RE to better versions. Huge oversight or sheer idiocy, I couldn't tell you. It makes the profession even more lackluster for tanks, who absolutely have to do dailies if they want mods.

 

Regarding your other question (RE-ing from vendor mods), I don't know yet, but I was planning to experiment. If anyone has been able to RE vendor mods to purple, it would be nice if you could let us know, but I somehow doubt it it's possible.

[Commando CC's]

Sage's force lift has something to say to you...

 

Force Lift is Concussive Charge with a different name and animation.

 

If your companions break Conc, put them on passive when you CC, LoS the rest of the pack if possible, and sic him/her on something else. Then position yourself in such a way that you have LoS on both the CC-ed mob and the rest of the pack (or the CC and your companion if you're mostly healing). Turn off companion AoE abilities for pulls where you have to CC.

 

You can do the same if you run with other people. Tanks who've already tanked in other games know the deal and the rest can be shown how to drag or LoS a pack so it's not close to your CC. If you just run with 1-2 DPS, either reposition the mobs before AoE-ing or ask them not to use AoE on top of your CC.

 

In PvP, it should be common sense that CC-ed targets should be left alone, especially healers, so it's not a design flaw, but a l2play issue for teammates. No, you can't help it, but bad players will make most abilities seem underpowered.

[Suggestions to Improve Medics]

I think that giving Trauma Probe charges a 100% chance to give cell charges might be a bit excessive because they pop very fast. This could be limited by a longer ICD on CSC charge generation from TP - something that would work out to maybe 9 charges over the duration of a TP.

 

I do agree that KB should hit 4 people.

 

I'd also like it if during SCC, the CD on KB would be lower or down to 0. I think that would allow for 2 different uses of SCC - either do several APM + MP combos, or bomb the whole raid. The main advantage would be spreading the KB shield on more people, while providing a bit of AoE healing. Given how small the KB heal is, and how expensive it is to spam it, I don't think it would be game-breaking. It would give us a better way to deal with heavy AoE damage and high mobility phases.

 

Just my 2 credits - the last idea could be stupid from 2 different points of view (either too weak for the ammo cost compared to an APM + MP rotation, or too powerful if we look at it as a raid wall).

[Combat Medic, am I missing something?]

The fact that SCC eliminates the CD on AMP means that can spam a few AMP + MP combos, which give you high burst with minimal ammo consumption. It also means that you can spread the AMP buff and HoT to several people. If you don't see the value of that, we can't help you.

 

You also get a damage reduction shield, a perma healing increase if you drop Kolto regularly, a small, but ammo-free HoT (Trauma Probe), and an ammo-free instant (Bacta).

 

We are very good at single-target healing and very resource-efficient, as well as pretty durable. In exchange, we aren't super mobile.

 

In terms of non-healing utility, we also get a CC and the frozen grenade.

 

Getting interrupted is a given, so you have to juke when you can afford it.

 

If you were looking for a highly mobile healer, you should have rolled Sawbones.

[Threat Meter - Yes or no?]

Im playing Mmo's for over 10 years now and i never had a so called "threat meter" if u as a damage class can't handle your class go and play something else or learn how to manage your damage..

 

Just out of curiosity, how do you "handle" your class in the absence of information?

 

Do you use some advanced mob mind-reading techniques that the rest of us aren't aware of?

 

The example you gave with the 4 crits in a row is utterly irrelevant because threat isn't a one-sided deal. Even if you assume that you're generating too much aggro, you don't have any information about how much threat the tank is generating at the same time. Your assumption could well be wrong, in which case you could be gimping your DPS for no good reason. When all DPS do this consistently, you have a better chance of not beating the enrage timer.

 

Also, I'm curious how you expect healers to know who is about to pull aggro. We can't see your numbers without a damage or threat meter, so how exactly are we supposed to know whom to pre-HoT or bubble just in case? People can generally survive one swipe from the boss before the tank taunts back, and their chances increase when the healer is prepared.

 

For someone who advocates using your brain, you don't seem to use yours much.

[I Don't Know How to do Operations...*sags head in shame*]

They are designed for level 50 and they are instances, like the flashpoints you probably did, but they require 8 or 16 people instead of 4. Raids are meant to be harder than instances - more boss mechanics, greater coordination, etc. They also drop better gear, recipes, etc.

[Trooper story good?]

I enjoyed the trooper story all the way through, but felt it did not go out on a high enough note

 

That's how I felt. A bit anti-climactic at the end, like they didn't have enough time to think about a better ending.

 

Incoming spoilers, so read at your own risk.

 

**********************

 

I really don't understand why people are surprised that the trooper story isn't more controversial. You're not playing a free agent, but a professional soldier who made Special Forces not only because they were capable, but also because they could be relied on to complete a mission without being distracted by personal adventures.

 

Also, you are by no means a mindless drone. If you go the Light route, you get to stand for the ideals of the Republic far more than your superiors, for whom the end often justifies the means. I know that I got yelled at by Garza after almost every important mission, and especially so at the end.

 

Regarding companions, I didn't find them similar or one-dimensional at all, although some of them are not fully developed.

 

Jorgan may be a classic soldier, but if you do his quest, you'll see that his loyalties are very humane and that he despises the actions of the secret services. He also isn't the best at following orders, but that's understandable considering how he was treated after the defection of the original Havoc Squad.

 

Dorne, while annoying as hell with her regulations, has had an unusual life and has to live with the fact that her family may be suffering because of her defection; her story, once you piece it together, is probably the most realistic. She's consistently hounded by suspicion, regardless of the fact that she's a good soldier and a good medic and hasn't given them any reason to think she is a secret Imperial agent. The happiness and relief she feels when she finally becomes a Republic citizen is actually very similar to how immigrants feel when they get permanent status.

 

Forex is there for comic relief - a murderous zealot robot. He's completely over the top and is likely there as a reminder why you shouldn't manufacture your soldiers.

 

Tanno Vik is a thug, completely unlike everyone else in the Squad. If I didn't need his affection maxed because of the miracles he works with UT (comes back with Mando Iron more often than not), I'd be slapping him around freely. I find it somewhat curious that a self-entitled jerk like him wouldn't be hitting on his attractive female boss at every chance, but they may have figured that some women would be annoyed (I'm a woman and I think it would have been hilarious if I could punch him without getting DS points).

 

Yuun is very interesting, but also very underdeveloped. I think it would have been nice if we could have gotten an actual quest from him.

 

My sense is that some of the companions who aren't fully sketched out may be developed in content patches or expansions. For now, it seems like they focused on the more human ones for now. I'd much prefer to get more content for these ones before we get new companions.

[underworld trading broken/bug?]

The rich metal mission is mislabeled. It costs the same as a moderate and only rarely returns epic metals.

[Tanking]

Jedi Knight/Sith Warrior - closer to a DK in some regards, and to a warrior in others.

 

Trooper/Bounty Hunter - paladin.

 

Consular Shadow/Inquisitor - not sure, although the armor thing is similar to a druid's. Friend is leveling one with my Sage, but he's playing with the DPS tree for now and we're too low-level to form an adequate opinion.

 

Trooper Vanguard from what I've seen seems a lot of fun and not particularly hard to heal - he's not spiky, which is good from a healer's point of view.

[What are ranked warzones?]

I suspect they will introduce a ladder system for premade groups, probably level 50 only, which will involve gaining rating points when you win a match (and losing some or staying at the same rating if you lose).

 

Probably similar to WoW's rated BG/arena system.

 

I doubt it it would apply to random groups.

[Tionese Stalker's Implant]

You'll get a Rakata-quality purple from RE-ing your green 49 recipe (through the blue, of course). Problem is that you might have to burn through a few bad versions before you get the right itemization. Then you'll need a crit craft. But if it's anything like earpieces, it will be better than the Rakata.

[Going Biochem after hearing about 1.1]

You don't get better earpieces and mods "handed" to you.

 

The only things which are better are the armorings, and only by +1. Those you can get pretty fast and aren't worth crafting.

 

Rakata earpieces are worse than the crafted ones, albeit by a small margin. They also cost 120 marks a piece, so it's not something you can buy in one day. The PvP ones, including the Battlemaster, have worse itemization and require a long valor grind. If all you do is PvP, then it's not an issue, but for people who don't want to PvP a lot, buying a crafted one is a far easier solution.

 

Mods are identical, so it's a matter of what you find more convenient. Personally, I hate dailies and I don't really have a reason to do them. I make more money from Cybertech while doing other things.

 

I don't consider drops from HMs and ops as things being "handed" to anyone - you still have to clear the instance, get lucky with drops, gather marks, etc. It's normal for drops to be better in the end, or people wouldn't have much reason to do an instance once they saw it once.