Edit: my response isn't so much about immersion as it is trying to give equal appeal to both factions for new, incoming players to swtor. Personally I'm not bothered by the presence of the Imperil cartel items, but I do find it odd and quite obviously given more attention (I.e., more attention given to making imperial cosmetic appeal than Repubs). The throne and the mask come to mind so far. Looking at content that already exists, just the simple differences in legacy abilities given when you level 1 of each class, difference in spell graphics between the two factions, getting unique appearances for dark side corruption (t admit this isn't imperial just because it's dark side, but it's still the "evil" side getting more aesthetic option.") I love being a pub so I don't really care. I'm not mad about it and I wouldn't leave my faction. But it's quite obvious that one side gets more aesthetic attention, and I think it unfortunatey has more of an effect than I'd like to see (e.g., people rerolling empire/leaving the republic).

A few things from the Livestream gave me questions and thiughts: (portion of transcript and source are copy and pasted at the bottom of the thread). 1. Can someone please translate the text below that I put in bold? It's in the quote box further down. To me it seems he is saying its basically so far away that they don't know when it is... but they can promise it will come before the game meets its end or when they stop making content for it(assuming it shuts down one day). Surely I'm interpreting this wrong? I would hope the content you're making for the game falls within the scope of the time of the game... OR when he's saying it's so far out, is he talking about lore-wise? Like the space event they are working on is much further in the future than we are currently at at this point in the lore?? Sorry if this is vicious but this text in bold just utterly confused me. Don't get it. 2. The bit at the very end about the content not being a part of the original shipment, to me, sounds very much like an expansion/major change/major project, not just a content patch. Link: http://dulfy.net/2012/11/29/swtor-patch-1-6-livestream-qa-transcript/

On an analytical level, I assume the devs have MA the way it is because they did some calculations and determined that it'scooldown and on-use effect are intended to keep it in check with what it was intended to do. In reality, though, and from the surface (where I admit I'm likely not thinking logically enough), MA seems incredibly underwhelming in its current state. In ther words, the eyeball testing I've done suggests that MA simply does not justify the point it requires that far up with its long cooldown and very short duration. It's a nice bonus because there isn't anything better to spend it on, basically. I admit I dont play a tk sage; I'm a seer. I have played around with the spec though. Maybe some experts (longtime tk sages or devs) can give good explanations how it's powerful in its current state. Im very open to the fact thqt maybe im just not smart enough to figure out how to utilize it best. Until then, I have to agree with you that MA could use some reconsideration in its design.

Hi fellow Repubs, Not sure if any of my comrades still play other than a few of my guides... But I've been having some fun lately solo queuing for warzones and having a blast. Would love to see and heal some familiar (or new!) faces if they are still playing. Today was my first time logging In since server merges (I came from Hedarr Soongh > to Fatman > to here) and everyone seemed extremely friendly on our chat. Gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. Look forward to healing some people again in warzones.. I haven't logged in about half a year it seems - been fun serving the Republic again. Anyone willing to keep meanies off of me during pvp will certainly be remembered in future matches. I'll be happy to take care of your life bar while you hunt down our enemy

I remember this too! It seems like it'd be such a successful tool but maybe it wasn't. I'd use the heck out it.

Yes please.... So ready to make out with Corso Riggs (with customization 2, I think. The one with subtle scars on his face). Hawt

My lips are sealed

Aw is that a compliment? Or just a sith's hatred?

I guess I'm the minority that didn't see the OPs post as demanding of something like a timeframe. I think he's saying something of meeting in the middle. He didn't think the dev should say it was getting fixed tomorrow necessarily... But would it be catastrophic to say "we've been working on a fix for this that may make it in tomtomorrow's patch, but it isn't finalized yet." It doesn't guarantee anything and it would probably make more customers be cued in on the ongoing work that the devs are putting into the game. As it stands now, we tend to wait and wait like we are waiting for a Christmas present for bug fixes sometimes. This waiting with generic updates, IMO, is what contributes to some of the angry posters. They just want to feel that the developers actually are working on things... Generic answers don't give a sense of urgency or reflect the develoeprs' hard work. The generic answers we get are "that's a high priority" or "that's an interesting idea but isn't at the top of the lit right now." would it hurt to say "that's in active development right now" or"were brainstorming ways to fix that before we begin working on it" or "that's something we'll likely prioritize after the upcoming content patch." It just makes it appear that either a) the different teams aren't interacting much at all or b) that they are robots without a personality or interest in players' concern.

That's true, but it already exists with the group finder. It's like dps can't afford to ignore tanks but tanks and healers don't get punished as much for ignoring dps. What I think is really cool about it is while it could make queues longer, this would have the most direct impact on the person doing the ignore. Therefore people /ignoring others would learn to use discretion when ignoring someone in a warzone and reserve the command for really really bad teammates. On the flip side, people with tempers and people who yell, curse, etc. would have to learn to meet in the middle a bit or get ostracized from pvp. I almost see it as a way for the community to manage themselves and their own behavior rather than it being managed by the limitations of the game. Rather than putting in penalties for people that quit a warzone (which many are opposed to), this could be an alternative way to pr,one community and reduce unaccountability. It would work best with cross server no doubt.... But if the argument is that it would make queues longer... Well... That's already happening in group finder. I don't see why BW would do it for one activity but not another. Jeez sorry for the long post, lol. Btw I'm from Hedarr too, did you have the same char name there?

As far as I know you can only do members 1-4. I'm accustomed to clicking the names so it doesn't bother me, but I know many people who came from games with mouse overs are having a hard time adjusting, hopefully they come up with a solution for you guys.

What Cleet said. Also, are you a healer or dps? Depending on the amount of healing you need on yourself, you can just toss up instant force armors on yourself.

While I agree with you that the sage class isn't broken, it's kinda ironic that you announced your pvp success before calling the game "low skillcap." it's almost like you're making fun of your own success because the game doesn't require much effort to be the "best." (your words) In all seriousness, congrats to you for being in a high ranked guild as a sorcerer. I'm glad to see some fellow sages showing our class's potential.

When I notice I have guard, I ask in ops who is guarding me if I can. I then place a target marker on their head so I can see their distance away from me easily without looking for their name (that way I can try to stay as close to them as possible.) iill also sometimes just set them as my focus target. But yes, as you mentioned it's hard to do this in the heat of battle. This helps me know who guarded me You can always just looked for the ability graphic and who it's shooting at you from to see who is guarding you... This can be hard to see sometimes though.

Ditto... Or the person with the Highest protection score at the end of the match (which means DPS who are using their taunts often get my vote).

Yep you and I use the same set bonuses. Nice combination there At least (with the right points) casting lightning strike will give you some extra force regen to be able to afford more inefficient healing in a pinch (benevolence). But yes 7.5 sec cooldown healing trance is the way to go.

1. In Huttball: "I clicked to pass but he stunned me so it took away the pass graphic, not my fault this game is buggy... What else did you want me to do?" 2. In civil war:: we cap east. Everyone goes mid to defend so I turn back around to defend east. I hold east for several minutes while /ops chat blows up: "we never have healers on our team, we lose." (I'm a healer). 3. Random players: "need a heal! Heal! Heal!" as he runs off to dps someone far away from me while I kite 2 dps players and try to keep myself alive.

Couldn't agree more about the map skills. That is a touchy subject to a lot of people though... Some people won't believe you when you tell them that NSEW are static directions on a map. There was a 100'page thread debating this after launch. Ill see if I can find it.

Good way of putting it haha.

Haha at the pizza! That's hilarious. My favorite was someone losing a node without calling it in civil war. Someone asked in ops why they didn't call for help, and the defender responded, "what did you want me to do, stop and type for help while he was hitting me?"

What I'm curious about is when you dps in your lightning corruption spec, what is the biggest impediment to damaging others? Interrupts or them going out of range? Or is it because you can't get back to healing as fast? If its because you cant get back to healing as fast, The cool thing about seer/tk (corruption/lightning) is that with alacrity, my lightning strike gets down to a 1.25 sec cast time. Since alacrity affects the global cooldown of abilities with activation times less than 1.5, I can actually cast a disturbance(lightning strike) and return back to healing faster than I can with instant abilities. If you use the 4pc sage pve set bonus, you can get your lightning strikes to cast even faster, allowing you to do faster damage/healing combinations than an instant ability and a heal. It can be hard to do though because the pace can be very hard to keep up with.

It'd be a really cool feature and could help the community evolve to play with gamers they enjoy playing with (think of it as a form of natural selection; the players who aren't team players or whatever would be "weeded out" so to speak. Perhaps BW will consider it.

The cast time issue is exactly why I stack alacrity and power. I tend to go further into the seer tree than the spec you mentioned so that probably makes our stat priorities different, After too many attempts trying to cast heals only to be interrupted, I realized the value of weaker heals that are not able to be interrupted as easily. Are people interrupting your caster dps abilities or are they just running out of sight/out of range? And yea, the balance seer spec definitely "flows" better. I don't know what to call it, but it just feels more fluid and like you're always doing something. Btw I'd be interested in seeing your spec if you feel like sharing

I tend to agree with you in the fact that it's a shame you have to resort to a spec you don't necessarily prefer in order to be effective. If you like the class, stick it out the best you can. Nerfs come and go and usually it comes back around so that you'll be able to be the spec you want. That's just my advice (not that you were asking for it) Being in a good guild of high quality players is awesome, it just means that your performance comes before your preferred spec. Obviously you realize this, I'm just saying its the unfortunate price we pay to be competitive

I agree with you regarding Everquest; never played those others though. Wow on the other hand felt very transparent about future patches, changes, current developer ideas, etc. I think some games can pull it off and some can't. Perhaps it has to do with the size of the team or something - I imagine smaller teams can communicate more efficiently and thus can be more direct and open (not sure really, just a guess ) P.s. I don't usually like bringing up other games on these forums but thought I would since OP did.