If everyone's health is topped off and you're looking for ways to keep yourself engaged in the fight, there's nothing wrong with doing some low-resource or free DPS, interrupts or crowd control. Your job as a healer is to support your team members: first on that list is keep everyone on their feet. As long as your actions don't pull aggro or cause a death, go for it.

This is a really tough question to answer, because a story line that appeals to one person might not do it for another. She has multiple ranged options available, but I suggest she give a few classes a try. If she wants to be a Force user: go Consular/Inquisitor. If she wants to blast stuff, then both smuggler/IA and trooper/BH can be ranged. That's excellent advice as a starting point, at least.

Wouldn't doubt it, as long as mobs aren't entirely dead by the time I get into position. He was one shot killing packs of things last night while I... Well, at least I managed to throw a grenade at the last remaining guy, hooray for me.

I only JUST got mine. So what you're saying is: when Hubs & I steamroll that instance later it won't be thanks to my incredibly powerful and spectacular heals? (Ok, ONE heal?!) <sobs>

Yes, THAT is EGA. Yay! <waves arms like Kermit the Frog>

That's cruel.

Yes, your armor class is tied to your character class. Some advanced classes (like the Guardian) gain access to another armor class upon learning their advanced class, but Consulars are always restricted to light armor. Consider any unusable drops free credits. Vendor them, or sell them on the Galactic Market. (TOR version of a player auction house) Extra cash never hurts.

Were the options ones that required a mission object? (Handing in or taking something from the NPC) Dialog options that require a physical presence are disabled on holocalls.

You're likely to hear this a lot, but it's part of your class quest line. Just keep following the quests in your mission log marked "Class" and you'll get your companion. Same goes for your light saber and ship. They're all only loosely level related.

"What? Why isn't this working?! Oh. Right. NOT playing Dragon Age. <innocent whistling while killing mobs>"

I don't want to say that I've been playing a lot of a certain kind of RPG, but I kept trying to pause combat in story areas with the space bar in beta. Felt dumb each time my character would jump, but it did kinda break my compulsive jumping habit.

1) Not as far as I know, although I could be wrong. 2) There are multiple difficulty levels, yes 3) Pass 4) Not yet. Guilds are still quite basic right now. More is likely to come 5) There are planetary commendations at all levels to spend on gear, as well as social points to spend on fluff items. 6) Sawbones Scoundrel has been likened to Resto Druid at the mo'. Can't say for certain about SPriest, although the Sage/Sorcerer may have a DoT tree, don't quote me on that 7) There are color options, but I'm not sure there's much else for customization. 8) All racial perks are social. In other words, no stat bonuses. 9) No attunements AFAIK 10) Yes, although I don't know about PvP servers. 11) North American here, can't give you any help, sorry. 12) I'm planning on that build myself, actually. From what I hear, it's all about energy conservation and HoTs. Sounds like a little bit of a learning curve, but I think I've played enough healing classes to be up for the challenge Welcome!

You picked a good MMO to start with, in my opinion. It has a wonderfully rich storyline and it has some really good features to help new players learn the ropes, ask questions or ignore trolls, should it come to that. Hopefully it doesn't for you. Welcome, and don't be scared. Also <points to her own Joined date> welcome to the waiting room, there's lots of company!

I think this is a great thread for people to post about themselves and the game. Feel free to move along if you disagree.

Think of PvP servers as being in battlezones continuously. There are a few zones (beyond "introductory" levels) that are designated sanctuaries (non-pvp zones), but otherwise pvp is enabled in every other area. That not only means you have to be prepared for other players to jump you while you're questing, you have to be prepared for other players to jump you while you're talking to a merchant, going afk in a non-sanctuary, going through your bags, reading your mission log, harvesting, and any other activity you might be doing while you're out and about. PvP servers are completely no holds barred, and no one will care if you're just learning the game. And if they're really set on making your life miserable, they'll camp your corpse. (In other words, they'll keep killing you over and over every time you rez) PvP servers can really be a lot of fun; they add an extra level to the game that just isn't there on a PvE server. But they can be incredibly frustrating as well. If you're confident about your abilities and learn fast, a PvP server might be perfect for you. But if you want to take it easy to start, go for a PvE server.

<high fives fellow smuggler and lurker>

I actually checked around for this thread first when I saw the forums were back up, lol. (Man, took ya long enough! /tease) I didn't introduce myself last time though! I'm Heather, and I mostly lurk here in the forums. I was a big WoW player til about August, then I quit playing. Played EQ2 before that, and that's about 4 years worth of gaming right there. (Before that, I was way too busy in college working on my second post-secondary degree to bother with video games. But I've always been a huge nerd. And a proud one! ) I spent a lot of time in the WoW forums when I played, and I remember the one bright spot there was always the newbie forums. I have higher hopes for these forums, and this particular thread doesn't disappoint. As a side note, I notice now there's actually a forum for people to introduce themselves to the community, I wonder if this thread had anything to do with that. I may occasionally pop by to answer a question if someone else hasn't beaten me to the punch, or to drop off a tray of cookies. (Chocolate chip, in case you were wondering.) (ETA: I mention the Introductions forum and suddenly the thread moves there! What happens if I mention I could use a million dollars?)