awesome to know! thanks, archon are you happy w/jugg dps? i always like going a different route than the majority if it truly is viable. this is where my information came from: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=65053 see the 7th post in link. so did you get some of these abilities after the lvls described in that link, or do you just disagree w/them?

actually, i thought this boss was incredibly easy. i tanked it 3 times, twice when it was orange, once when yellow. he is the weakest hitting boss in game, yet, perhaps. at least on my powertech? besides the gimicky/easy fireball avoidance, this fight seemed to us that it was intended to be more about group healing / purging/etc depending on your available classes. there was WAAAAY more damage on the other peeps. so the healer just focused on them/himself. as long as you interrupt or throw 1 or so heal after the force choke - electricity thing on the tank, you can probably ignore the tank's healthbar..

it's probably not universal for all 16 man / 8 man fights, you might want only one tank on certain ones. on others, depending on gear/familiarity/amount of adds/etc, you might want 2 offtanks? i'd expect a 16 man flashpoint to typically mean 2 tanks, 3-4 heals, 10-11 dps, thereabouts. but i'm curious as well if anyone's done a # of 16 man ops.

i thoroughly enjoy doing 2 or so a day. my daily routine is a flashpoint, a planet, a couple space missions, and lots of crew skills throughout. when you repeat them, yes, they do get stale. i finish all the objectives with like 3 mins to go on some, but it's still fun. it's a nice addition to the game, not to be confused with a MAIN FEATURE of the game. just a little side game that adds to swtor.

i believe, if i'm not mistaken, at present: marauder actually has more survivability / more tools than a jugg dps'er. this doesn't go against what you said & might be corrected, but short of higher armor, i don't think the jugg is superior to the marauder in any way. however, this is all just from reading. i'm still not 50 on my BH and haven't begun my sith warrior yet.

i just disagree. bioware's tool for storytelling, which is a fantstic one, is the player being involved in the dialogue. that's HOW they tell stories in Mass Effect, Dragon Age, etc. also in every quest in SWTOR. this is the tool they use. the flashpoints referenced in this thread have been done lazily and/or rushed.

anyone on this?

yes it does...

yea... i think it's a typical thing for bioware since EA got them.. they focus on a great start to games.. it's smart... gets people to stick w/it... i just wish they had same effort in the later ones......

don't get me wrong. i LOVE this game. i still rush home from work to play all night every day, and will continue to do so... but man, black talon was so good. lots of story segments, lots of player dialogue/choices.. hammer station, athiss, mandalorian raiders, and cademimu (spelling not sure on last one) - the first 4 after black talon.. all identical. and not in a good way. the combat's fine, the bosses/level design are fine... but there's literally the same thing for all 4. a: talk to malgus via holo terminal b: go in, halfway thru, hit spacebar after a series of who-gives-a-darn text, then choose either light side (save random people) or dark side (kill said random people). with no dialogue, just the winning character pressing a button on a machine c: talk to malgus via holo terminal after you leave that's it. anyone else disappointed in that? i'm HOPING some instances in future will be as immersing as black talon. at least the "operations" at 50, etc.

how exactly do the orange items work?? are there differences between the one i'm wearing (got somewhere in the mid 20's) and the TD-17 imperator? or do ONLY the 3 implants inside of them matter? is there no inherent armor bonus/etc?

wont lie, i'm missing wow target icons. easier to see, imo lots of these are same colors/etc as a lot of what's going on, or so it seems. and my *god* i wanna keybind.

i did same thing a couple days ago

awesome reply, ty for doing lots of the legwork for me helped a lot!

so you want to be able to spam flamethrower forward while running? wouldn't you burn yourself

yea, just figured worth asking if anyone's been lvling / grouping as jugg dps. i like being different, figuring most sith war dps are marauders you're saying marauder dps spec has more survivability than jugg dps spec? like detaunts, damage reduction, what?

this. the torguild.net one that is first ong oogle search is inaccurate. i use: http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#301.1

bingo. got one on nar shaddah from the entry area groupx2 quest that i liked, and then i replaced it i THINK with the tattooine-alderran precursor quest helm that you have to go back to hutta/drumond kaas to get (after you finish balmorra/narshaddah quests). i'm not 100% positive that's where it was, but i THINK that's right. it looks just like the one from nar shaddah quest, but it's yellow instead of brownish. (on the top. the orange horizontal visor is the same). i don't love that it makes my guy have a helmet-voice though, because my mouth is clearly not covered

what weapon can he use? pistols/rifles/etc haven't worked... i can't tell what his weapon proficiency is.

bingo. i take out even champion mobs with no difficulty so far. i can't solo groupx4's if it's like.. 3 elites+ per pull (i.e. the jedi-quest on narshaddah, i couldn't do that solo) - but, while slightly slow on long fights, you've got tons of survivability. i've not come close to dying yet as shieldtech lvling. i usually pull a couple groups together and then flame whirl them/death from above/flamethrower. very fast. it's fun being durable

its uses for being an offtank are probably limited in pve. seems more suited towards pvp. for pve tanking, i haven't chosen that talent, nor will i.

bingo. i only have shieldtech points spent (lvl 26 atm) - i'm pretty limited at long range. short of unload, railshot, darts, and rockets/death from above, i feel helpless at long range. i grapple guys to me aall the time, and if i get knocked back and/or can't grapple, i run right up there again to drop oilslicks and massive usage of rocket punches & flamethrowers.

i use unload all the time on single target tanking, esp if it's a turret or like a droid that knocks you back, (if grapple's down) if i don't have to gather multiple enemies. it works pretty well, actually, and like someone said: it leads to railshot. plus, for levelling, it's solid for single targetting elites/champions if solo etc.

there's a reason my light-side bounty hunter has chosen dark side option once now. it related to ugnaught bounty hunter rivals. F ugnaughts.

anyone have an updated opinion on this? i enjoy the sith war storyline/etc to the inquisitor->assassin one. is the jugg dps tree (or shared tree) viable for dps? or does marauder truly feel like more dps?