The bug is quite annoying. This fight is harder post "nerf" that it was beforehand. The main problem we faced was the fake bombs with the debuffs that don't go away. On more than one occasion, a person had their entire debuff bar on the interface filled with false bombs, so the real bomb that person had did not show up. Even when not taken to that extreme, it's much easier to deal with the bomb without the false debuffs; it's easier to recognize a person when they have the only debuff, rather than noticing the 10th identical debuff on my raid frame. This didn't stop us from downing it, but it it took it longer than it should have.

It's a lot of fun exploring new bosses. On DF launch day, our guild ran it cold. Figuring out the Brontes fight was one of the most fun experiences I've had in a while. You need to have a group of like-minded individuals for it to work, though. If you are pugging a person, it's only fair to them to mention that you guys are going in cold with no experience/knowledge (which it seems like you did). If they know the situation going in, and then have a change of heart a couple pulls in, that's entirely their fault.

Usually everyone needs it, so everyone is free to roll need on it, same with mats. The biggest reason is because there's almost always someone who WILL roll need on it, so if you want any shot at winning it, you need to roll need on it yourself.

I don't recall a bug. It works fine in my experience, as long as there are actually queued for replacement, which there may or may not be.

Give me a break. There are multiple bugs in both of the new Operations that have not been fixed.

It depends what kind of mood I'm in. A couple weeks ago, I was looking for a TFB HM run on my Sniper I was gearing up. Originally, I wanted a full and quick run. The group I joined ended up being a guild run (besides me), were just starting the night picking up on Op9, and they had yet to kill him. I figured "what the hell, I have this on farm on my main, I'll help these guys out, give them advice, and try and lead them to their first kill". We didn't end up getting the kill, and it cost me a couple hundred credit and a couple hours of my time, but I guess I was just in the mood to help out. A part of it was remembering how hard my group worked on that fight way back when, and how good it felt to finally down him, and I wanted to help them achieve that same feeling. Other times, I'm not in the mood to deal with it. Later that same week, I got in a HM 8 SnV run with that Sniper. I saw that at least half the group had not completed the Operation, and even one or two had never even completed SM Scum. I politely told them I was not in the mood for a learning or heavy wiping run, wished them luck, and excused myself. In FPs, I typically don't waste a ton of time. I'm not an elitist, and it's not like I quit after a wipe or two. I'm willing to persevere through mistakes and inexperienced players. However, if I can clearly see that there's no way this group will complete the FP, then I'll cut my losses.

Ok, listen here. I main an Op heals, but I need to stick up for my Sorc buddy. Did you forget that there's another DoT that ONLY Sorcs are unable to cleanse IN THE SAME FIGHT? Yea, said DoT is also unavoidable, while the DoT that only Sorc can cleanse can be completely (and should always be) prevented. Really, if anything, Sorcs have a disadvantage here, not an advantage.

Disagree. This fight is overtuned for SM, and I believe it is a bug. The damage output is greater than in HM. A HM version of an encounter is not supposed to be easier than the SM version, right? As it stands now, that's the way it is. We beat this too fight too; that isn't the issue. The issue is that an average PUG of player wearing 66's (i.e. most of the people NOT reading this forum post) are supposed to be able to clear this. As it stands, that's not the case. Most players on the forums are above average, based on the fact they are doing "outside research" and not just looking in-game going "hey yea cool! an operation! let's gooooo!". These are who SM are intended for (and not most of us), and these players are going to have a hell of a time clearing this. Personally, it doesn't affect me much. I'll only be running SM for a couple weeks while I finish farming Ultimate Coms, and then I'll probably never go in SM again. Even when I do go, I'll be going with people I trust as I would not ever attempt to PUG 8man SM again as it stands. I'm advocating for the general public. Please don't get me wrong. This fight was FUN and was a pretty decent challenge. I just don't think this encounter should be in SM (and look at the rest of the Operation as an example. You can straight up ignore 90% of the mechanics and turn almost every fight into a simple tank and spank).

I'm more curious as to the enrage timer. Anyone experience one that seemed short for geared players doing SM, or do you figure it was just being new to it and not killing adds fast enough? Still seems like it's pretty tight for the average PUG.

nt.nt

Fridge is right, and I fully support his suggestion. He's not asking for it to be easier; on the contrary, he's asking for it to be more difficult because you have to actually kill the final boss instead of killing the easy first boss and having a shot at it. He's simply asking for it to be more reliable, which I completely agree with.

The only real inconvenience is that it delays the ultimate coms that you get. Since I'm trying to get as many 78s as possible to help with our HM runs, it does offer a minor inconvenience. Other than that, we'll still get it done and all of our rewards. It's not like we can use the Tauntaun yet anyway.

I agree with your assessment. After my experience in 8m SM, I went on a different toon for 16m and was shocked at how simple it was. Most of the "It's fine as is" comments in this thread have come from people talking about the 16-man perspective. And it IS fine in 16-man. In 8-man, however, it's a different story.

I had actually forgotten about this. Yes, this did happen on one of our early pulls.

I experience this bug after going through the "vehicle portal" in Dread Fortress almost every time, if not 100% of the time. Others in the groups I have been in (three different raid groups) have also mentioned they were experiencing the same thing.

I completed Brontes tonight, and at 50% when he spawns his clockwise-moving lazer, it malfunctioned. Instead of starting at a point and rotating clockwise, the lazer was focused on raid members (and switched between different raid members throughout the duration of the cast. The lazer did no damage to the person it was focused on, nor anyone who walked through it. Additionally, none of the exploding adds ever spawned. The raid group stood there and did nothing and took no damage. Upon completion of Brontes's channel, he transitions into the next phase normally. No other bugs were encountered during the fight. *Bug was witnessed in 8-man SM. Unknown whether this bug happens in other difficulty levels or on 16-man. I've completed Brontes in 8-man SM without the bug happening one time, and one time with the Bug. It's unknown how often this happens, and I know of no way to recreate the problem. There's also apparently another version of the bug, taken from another thread in this forum, where the adds still spawn, but the beam is attached to a player. Note that I have not experienced this version of the bug, so I cannot vouch for the authenticity of it.

Same problem here. It should be mentioned that it does actually edit the post, but it is a bit of an annoyance.

I didn't read the whole thread, so I'm not sure if this has been suggested or not. How about changing the PvP queue into a format similar to the group finder queue? That is, you can select what maps/game types you are willing to play, and then let matchmaking go to work. The infrastructure is already there, so it would just need to be tweaked for PvP and those maps. You could even add some sort of incentive for people to select all available options (as in the group finder's commendations), to allow certain queues to fill faster than they would otherwise. Just like in the PvE group finder, the more options you select, the faster your queue will pop. You can still select a single map to play if you choose, but it will likely increase the time you have to wait in queue. This would have a number of benefits: 1) Most importantly, it would allow players to play game types that they find fun, and not force them to play things don't. Having fun is what playing games are about, so this should always be priority number one. 2) Similar to number one, but I feel like it deserves it's own mention. Sometimes players want to play a certain game type. I'm mainly a PvE player, and I can't explain to you how annoying it would be to have to join a general queue to get placed in a group where I might end up in Scum and Villiany, Eternity Vault, or Cadamimu, depending on how the Group Finder Gods were feeling. There's similar frustration in playing warzones. Personally, I don't like Huttball. I think it's a very well designed warzone, it's just not my cup of tea. Whenever I get it popped, I'm faced with a dilemma: do I quit, putting my team at a disadvantage they shouldn't have to endure (not to mention giving myself a 15-minute penalty for leaving something I never even wanted to play in the first place), or do I keep playing something that feels closer to "work" than "fun" for me? 3) It would prevent (or decrease the amount of) players selecting ranked play just because they want to play Arenas. I'm actually guilty of doing this myself. Arenas are out, and of course I want to try them out. I don't want to play random warzone after random warzone just hoping to maybe, if I'm lucky, get a single arena. I played more than 10 unranked warzones yesterday, and not a single arena. Eventually, I queued for ranked because I wanted to play Arena. More competitive PvPers probably don't appreciate this (and for good reason), and it lowers the quality of play in ranked arenas. 4) It would probably increase quality of play (or at least effort put forth by players) for all warzones. If you put a player in a situation they don't want to be in, they are less likely to put forth 100% effort. Anyway, sorry if this was covered earlier.

http://www.swtor.com/patchnotes/2.4.0a/1032013 "Preview now works as intended for items on the Galactic Trade Network."

For encounters, you typically HAVE to bring one of a couple classes. For instance, you may HAVE to bring a Sin, Jug, or PT (Tank). You HAVE to bring a Sorc, Op, or Merc (Heals). You don't HAVE to bring an Op or Merc to cleanse that DoT. It can be healed through. You get a bubble and two puddles, which passively mitigate much of that damage. You can have your raid positioned more effectively to minimize the number of people getting hit by the AoE. All in all, I don't really consider that DoT to be a "core mechanic". This isn't like in Firebrand and Stormcaller where cleansing the Targeted is almost a requirement. As you said, some encounters are simply easier with certain compositions. Writhing Horror, for example, is much easier when you bring a Sin tank. Do you know how many fights are MUCH easier when you bring a Sorc healer (or two)? This may not be one of those fights. However, you still can beat this fight with two Sorc healers. How do I know? I've done it.

Opening Cartel Packs is a gamble, period. If you REALLY want a Varactly, for instance, and you REALLY want to spend real money to get it, it's simple: 1) Sell Hypercrate for 6 million, 2) Buy Varactle for 3 million. By opening the packs, you are gambling that you will get items that equate to more than the 6 million you can sell it for. Was the OP's post a bit trolly? I guess a little bit, but he's making a good point.

There's been some discussion on the Operations forum about this guy, and I'm posting it here because after tonight, I am now convinced that it is a bug, The DoT called "Affliction" from the Guardians (not to be confused with the "Mass Affliction" from the Corruptors) ticks for MORE damage on Story Mode than it does on Hard Mode. This was verified using Parsec from multiple people. That is is a fact, and I assume it is unintended for the damage output to be greater in Story Mode than in Hard Mode Additionally, I think the enrage timer on Story Mode is bugged. I don't have exact times to back this up, so this is speculation, not fact. Before we successfully completed him the third time we got to Wave 9, Draxus was enraged when he came down in Wave 9 twice (3 out of the 4 DPS in the group were my normal raid group, dressed in min-maxed 72 mixed with 75's mixed in, who successfully clear multiple fights in Nightmare TFB/SnV). In Hard Mode, we did not enrage. After doing the fight in 8-man Hard Mode as well, I can say with certainty that the Hard Mode version of the fight is EASIER than the Story Mode version of the fight. I did the fight in 16-man Story Mode, and it SEEMED like the Affliction DoT was ticking for a more reasonable amount, but I do not have any numbers to back that up. It's possible that the addition of more healers made it seem this way. Additionally, we experienced no enrage even though we had multiple DPS who weren't very geared (for example, a Marauder in 63-PvP gear, level 30 green relics, and a blue Microfilament CUNNING implant), and with a few DPS dying during the fight. Therefore, it's possible this may be bugged in 8-man only. These are my observations from first-hand experience in both SM and HM. I have also talked to my raid group, one of our guild's other raid groups, and other players, who all echo my feelings.

Don't take double sorc heals then. You already have the best AoE heals which are nice in this fight. Consider it balance.

The dot Draxus casts does hardly any damage. Most time, I don't even bother to cleanse it.

The Guardian dot is called Affliction.