While I can appreciate wanting to stick to being a 'true' tank, it's massive overkill to deck yourself out in tank gear during leveling. The content is simply not tough enough to warrant the increased survivability compared to the gimped damage output you will have. Sure, you might be able to survive solo heroics a bit better, but everything else will be very slow. Especially at low level, where tank gear beyond endurance stacking is virtually non-existant, it's just not a good thing to do. I leveled my tank in tank spec + dps gear (mostly +Power). Most heroic 4 quests (with a few exceptions ofcourse) could be done relatively easily with a healing companion and the use of defensive cooldowns. The rest was me and a dps companion, mowing through mobs without even a hint of actually dying. Note that I'm talking purely about solo leveling, as per the OP. Just my 2 cents.

He still murderfies the entire starting zone even though his gear is invalid. Tried it once and it was quite fun to see HK bouncing around, one-shotting mobs while I did /dance.

Obligatory "Can I has your stuffs?"

Loved her snarky comments. And the fact that she wholeheartedly agreed with me messing with Darth FatAss, were bonus points. "Alright! Back to Sith business. Grr."

I agree with you on this point... except for the fact that I can't possibly finish the trooper story, because I simply loathe it post-chapter 1. Tried to finish it in the previous 12x XP event and this one, both times ended in me deleting the toon and making another class. I'm saving my boost for that one.

Has very little to do with the thread topic, but I just wanted to quote this truth.

http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/gzex4

http://www.swtor.com/user/ce/gzex4

Not the least bit interested in a lifetime sub, regardless of extras that are thrown in. Especially on a several year old MMO...

You obviously either; a). Don't have Presence bonuses; b). Don't keep your dps comp geared; c). All of the above. Ofocurse your own DPS will trump that of a DPS companion. Although at pre-30 with a modicum of presence bonuses unlocked and good gear that's debatable. Pre-30, Vette took half the health of a silver with her snipe ability. None of my abilities could do that. Throughout my leveling, Vette and Jaesa have knocked down golds and groups of 2 silvers and normals in good time, all the way to 60. Without my interfering as well (while I was gathering and stuff). I'm not even talking HK-51 on a single target fight. That stuff is just... fun to watch. Seriously, you must be doing something wrong if your DPS comps are doing 'laughable' damage as you put it.

Hehe, thinking they actually give two flying Twi'Lek dungheaps about PvP in this game... Hilarious.

Hate it? Don't queue for it. The problem of normal FP queues not popping won't be solved by limiting TFPs, as evidenced by the whole period without the TFPs. If you want to do normal FPs instead of spamming KDY, join a guild. The lack of tanks and healers really isn't going to be magically fixed just because they limit KDY runs. Hell, on my tank or healer I wouldn't join a PUG FP if my life depended on it. Too many idjits in this game that quite often ruin runs. To be perfectly honest, wanting limited access to something just because you hate it, is arrogant at best. I don't particularly like KDY either, but it sure as hell beats the constant bad runs with tanks in DPS stances, healers not healing but DPSing and people randomly leaving all the frikkin' time. That's how it was in the past and is the very nature of using group finder to group with completely random people. When I want to run a normal FP, I either ask my guildies or solo it when I overlevel it (for the story). That being said, it would be good if they could expand KDY and/or make more level 15-55 tactical flashpoints.

Used to be near equal in the mid brackets on my server... untill the bolster bug. Now it's almost always Imp vs Imp matches and even those don't pop that often. Even at 60, some people seem to have lost all faith in properly fun PvP in this game as I've also noticed a considerable drop in reg queue pops at max level. That said, I don't blame 'm. When you get smashed to bits in the mid-brackets, there's very little reason to believe it gets any better at max level. I've also been dabbling with other MMOs simply because of the fact they seem to ignore PvP completely and utterly in swtor. I've done most of the PvE content, so there's very little keeping me here as long as PvP is broken beyond belief. Leveling a toon through PvP, which I wanted to do, is now virtually impossible unless you're a massive masochist. I don't even try to do it after level 30. And the fact they haven't so much as acknowledged this problem, pretty much kills any hope I have of them ever fixing and/or expanding upon PvP as a whole.

You mean, except for the fact they also increased the CD from 2 to 3 minutes?

Sueing BioWare and by extension EA? Even if they came into your house, murdered your entire family right in front of you and you had it on tape, from several angles, you'd be hard-pressed to win any lawsuit against them within your lifetime.

Love the shotgun sound effects, but prefer the knife visuals. But in the end I just can't take a Smuggler of any AC seriously when I play one. Agents on the other hand have an innate coolness factor beyond mere animations and sounds.

Nearly got 'm all, never ever use 'm. At all. Don't even feel the slightest need for them. Hell, barely ever use Heroic Moment and/or Unity even. Only use the latter if and when I intentionally solo content not meant to be solo'd.

I think you made the rest of your post irrelevant, because nobody is reading it after this retarded statement.

If people start praising Ops, they get nerfed into the ground. Again. So... Ops suck!

Force lightning seemed great fun to me at first too... But while awesome at first, it got real old, real fast. Up to a point where I enjoy the more subtle Sage animations a lot more. But that's more of a personal thing. I usually level two classes as well. But I don't start the second class until I get a bit bored of the first. That usually only happens around level ~40 for me. Starting up a new class at that moment means not having to do the same planet back to back. It depends on how quickly you get bored of a class. That said, if you get bored of a class each planet after a single planet, it's probably not the class to play.

To be honest, I fail hard against 55-59 players as a Hatred sin at level 40. Probably because I don't have Leeching strike +30% crit damage, +20% damage, double life steal, life steal on discharge, free execute and heroic utilities. So, basically, everything that makes this spec OP in the first place. Granted, I don't play my Assassin much, but it feels quite obvious they don't become really OP untill later levels. This is especially obvious when I play other classes in the same level range where I curbstomp Assassins/Shadows that are around level 40 with relative ease. Whereas I run away if I encounter a 55+ Assassin/Shadow (unless I'm already dead in like 4 seconds flat ). The only class that I can seem to play without getting wrecked by 55-59 players instantly in this bracket is a Vengeance Jugg. Mostly because of Unstoppable and their good DCDs that start trickling in at around level 40 that allow me to survive long enough to receive a heal or actually fight back.

As far as I know, it's anything but random. The GM position goes to the highest ranking subbed player in the guild. This amounts to the exact same solution you're proposing; the GM can designate people with a higher rank so they can receive his/her position in case of him/her going AWOL. I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong on this. I got a (dead) guild that way after I was unsubbed for a while and came back. Got me a nice personal Bank Guild

So, to recap; The most retarded, undocumented and downright moronic system ever invented for mmo PvP.

Sith Warrior where you choose based on common sense (mostly ends up neutral) is very interesting and makes the most sense. Full dark can be fun, but suffers from predictability in the way you basically become a living meatgrinder. Full light leads to some stupid descisions that make little sense as Sith. Kinda like full DS Jedi. Neutral or leaning slightly either side seems to create the most well-balanced character and actually has some forsight in terms of the story. I found Inquisitors to be the most sensible as mostly DS. The story, unlike the warrior, doesn't seem as tailored to LS. Most LS descisions reflect negatively on the character amd feel very unsithy. Also, Baras is quite a bit more fun (and more fun to piss off) than Zash. Qua companions, the warrior wins without a shadow of a doubt. With Vette being the cute sidekick (like Kira but way more fun), Jaesa being able to be turned dark or not and Quin's... eh... role in the story, I find the warrior's companions the best bar none. Unquisitor companions are... meh. Though Khem Val kinda grows on you.

I find the Throw root has it's uses. Especially if you can pressure someone into using stun/root break on it. Skilled players won't do that, but there are those that that do. It's also a nice tool to get back onto kiting classes or to stop a low health runner when leap is on CD. It's probably not the best choice, but an extra ranged root does have it's uses in PvP.