These threads always make me sad. Prior to launch, BoWare really thought that as the first story-driven, fully-voiced MMO, SWTOR would do to other MMOs what "talkies" did to silent film. Boy were they ever mistaken. As it turns out, all that time and money spent on voice acting just created another point of contention to bifurcate the community. Like hardcore vs. casual, pvp vs. carebear, now we have story vs. spacebar. How outstanding is that. Not that I'm surprised--BW was pretty naive. I've seen it a hundred times before: potentially great ideas go horribly wrong when exposed to the toxic environment of an internet gaming community.

While I think a "just for fun league" is an okay idea (I wouldn't be interested, but it takes all kinds), I don't see the second stipulation leveling the playing field and making it more casual-friendly. By eliminating Expertise, all you do is create a gear gap based on PvE progression; i.e. it will be Augmented Dread Guard/Campaign-geared premades rolling the fresh ungeared 50s rather than War Hero vs. Recruit. Instead, I think you'd be better off requiring players to equip Recruit in every slot, or just NORMALIZE all stats to reflect recruit in every slot (regardless of what the player is actually wearing... like bolster but in reverse). For me, this is all academic anyway since I'd likely not participate. But again, if what you are after is a nice, level, casual-friendly playing field, you need to do more than simply eliminate expertise.

Agreed. To anyone with martial arts training, that stance looks incredibly idiotic.

If this only applied to the bubble on the sorc/sage, it might have merit as an argument. But since the bubble is going on all the supposedly FOTM classes, the mechanic is more problematic than problem-solving.

If the issue were simply how to pop the bubble to get to the gooey candy center of your target, you'd be right. But that ins't the issue. The issiue is that the resolve gain doesn't match the effect, and that people are click-canceling the buff to use it as a proactive CC, so that everybody in a group, in addition to their normal CCs, also gets an on-demand PBAoE 3sec stun on a 17sec CD that adds only half the correct amount of resolve. So your argument to the effect of "L2P, it's all about how you pop the bubble," is just more insipid forum warrior nonsense. If the stun obeyed resolve rules, and only happened when you pop the bubble, this would be a non-issue anyway. Yes, thanks very much professor, we know how to avoid the stun when we are killing the bubbled guys. The problem is, it's being click-cancelled to carry Huttballs, rush nodes, and stunlock-kill players, and it's simply adding too much hard control and not enough resolve.

Nobody is being forced to do anything. HK-51 is an incentive. An important part of any game is players playing it. Do the content or don't, but I suggest those on the fence should give it a try. I've posted to try to be helpful, but at this point I can be of no further use.

Only Foundry/Maelstrom Prison must be completed in hard mode. That's because the story mode is level 37ish, whereas everything else pertaining to HK-51 is level 50 content. Thus the hardmode: it simply makes the flashpoint relevant to the players who will be running it. And frankly, it isn't very hard as hard modes go. Could be done in recruit gear by a PUG, if the players were methodical and determined. False Emperor can be done in story mode. But again, that wasn't my point. My point is that HK-51 is not being used as a way to browbeat solo players, story afficianados and KOTOR fans, but as a way to incentivize and showcase some of the best content in the game on behalf of those very players.

I already said this upthread, but it obviously bears repeating. Those of you who play the game 1-50 for the story and who want HK-51 because you are big KOTOR fans are ALREADY missing something really special by not playing Foundry (Malestrom Prison for Republic) and False Emperor. Let me be clear: HK-51 is nothing, compared to what you are already missing in terms of story and KOTOR lore. These are vital--let me underscore that--VITAL touchstones with the lore around which the game is based. If you aren't doing these flashpoints, don't come here crying about HK-51, about how you're only interested in story, how you're here playing SWTOR becasue they didn't make KOTOR3. You have no interest in the story. If you did--if you wanted to see your character take part in the greatest events of this epoch in Star Wars history--you'd play these two flashpoints. Note: not all flashpoints are this central to the story of SWTOR. But these two are huge. And that's why they are required for this event. The devs want you to expereince them even if you never experience any other group content in the game. Well, that and... they already have something to do with HK. Understand that I am not saying this to control anyone, to force anyone to play my way. I honestly don't care how anyone chooses to play. This isn't for my sake, it's for yours. Do yourself a favor. Bite the bullet, find some people, and run these flashpoints. Get your droid companion. What you will discover is that the companion is the least of the reasons why you'll be glad you did.

Kashyyyk, easily. (But also Ziost.)

You don't have to stunlock entire teams by walking up to them. Just being able to stunlock-kill a couple people here and there is enough in objective-based play. And this stun is completely out of proportion to other hard controls. The fact that the bubble can alternatively be used to absorb 3-4k damage and THEN stun someone doesn't make other stuns better by comparison. Nice try though. Honestly I don't think you people comprehend how much hard control this ability is providing to teams who know how to abuse it.

Sure, the solution is clearly never be within 10m of another teammate. (5m is a radius AROUND the caster.) So putting aside the fact that it's an AoE, let's look at the bubblle stun compared to the other hard stuns (i.e. Electrocute, Dirty Kick, Cryo Grenade and mirrored abilities). bubble stun 3 sec: 300 resolve, 17sec CD other hard stuns: 4 sec, 800 resolve, 60sec CD It's out of whack. Even against just one target. (But yeah, it's AoE. And can be granted to everybody.) Enjoy clinging to this crutch while you can.

There are a couple of premades on my server running with 2 sorcs who keep everyone bubbled. You get near them, they cancel the buff, stunning you and any nearby teammates. Since it's a hard stun and it only adds half the normal amount of resolve, they're having a lot of success chain-stunning multiple people and focusing them down one at a time. It's an old-school stunlock gibfest, but far more effective than ever before because it's AoE and resolve isn't an issue. Resolve gain should be commensurate with a hard stun and canceling the buff shouldn't trigger it.

Gary and Ed haven't played SWTOR in months. I seriously doubt Gary even has a lvl 50. Everything he says about SWTOR is hearsay and ignorance. Ed the "pvp expert" has to my knowledge never played a rated match. His website muses about how much higher the "skill cap" is in GW2, even though he was nowhere near it in SWTOR. He streamed vanguard pvp for months and finished most matches with zero protection. Yeah. At one point I expected more of Justin and Larry, but not anymore. GBTV has been all about yellow journalism and the blatant trolling of SWTOR since they started giving away beta keys to GW2. Which BTW is something that only fansites or promotional partners of ArenaNet were able to do.

The F2P players should be made to wear sandwich boards around, and BioWare can rent out this ad space to Pepsi, KFC, Tampax, etc. That way, they're generating revenue, and all the bitter wingnuts can stop having aneurisms. /sarcasm Seriously, people need to understand that under the F2P/Subscription hybrid model, every bit of revenue, from one-time $5 puchases of cartel coins, to subscription fees, to $100 purchases, is desired by the publisher, and that many non-subscribers will be contributing revenue through MTX. Many of them will in fact be contributing more revenue than subscribers who don't pay extra for coins. That's the nature of impulse selling, nickel-and-diming, and the "beauty," if you can call it that, of the F2P business model. This notion that everybody falls under the rubric of either subscribers or freeloaders is just ignorant. I came to play SWTOR because I had high hopes that it would carry the tradition of AAA subscription MMOs into the next decade, that it would CRUSH all the sleazy F2P games, take a big chunk out of WoW, and that BioWare would go the extra mile and give customers an undeniably superior game experience in exchange for their $15 monthly fee (and hell, I was willing to pay more for that). I had hoped that BioWare and LucasArts would open up new markets for SWTOR merchandise sales, SWTOR books, movies, animated series, etc, and that these revenue streams coming from outside the game would drive top-notch content development inside the game. But sadly, BioWare has squandered that opportunity. And having failed to carry the AAA western subscripton model into the next decade, they're stuck following the current industry standard, which, in addition to encouraging sleazy marketing toward "F2P" players, also diminishes the value of subscriptions, since much of the development from this point forward will go toward driving revenue through MTX. I don't like it any better than anybody else. This is the third MMO that's gone F2P while I was a subscriber. So far it's two for two: I unsubbed from those other games--largely because the money-grubbing mindset offended my old-school entrepreneurial sensibilities while failing to produce an uptick in the quantity or quality of content development. I am 99% certain that it is going to happen here, too. But what's done is done, and since we're left to make the most of it, let us not be dillweeds to the "freeloaders." Many of them will be paying for access to content. Some may even subscribe. In either case, they represent the future, such as it is, of this game.

Nobody put words in your mouth: you said you know what's in the lockbox, that it's gear. Later you said you know what isn't in the lockbox. These statements formed the basis of your arguments and refuting them isn't building strawmen. The fact is, saying that the box has something, then that it has nothing, is just arguing semantics. You don't know what's in the box and neither does anybody else. This sentence doesn't parse and could use some editing. Also it's a great example of what you tried to accuse me of doing: building a strawman argument. But I'll field it anyway. My opinion of the value of a lockbox doesn't matter at all. What matters is that virtual items in games represent a value to mmo game customers. Whether they foolishly misappropriate a lasting value to the items or they more reasonably see an entertainment value in them, inasmuch as the virtual items ehance their enjoyment of the game, players do ascribe value to virtual items. A value for which they have demonstrated willingness to pay real money. My opinion of this value, like yours, is irrelevant. People pay for virtual items and they will pay for lockboxes the contents of which are unknown, on the possibility that they may contain virtual items they want to "have." All along, that has been your argument, not mine. You know what's in the boxes, you know what isn't in them. Caveat emptor, there is nothing of value in lockboxes. But reality will tell a different story. Virtual items represent an entertainment value to mmo customers, and whether or not I would ever pay real money for a sparklepony, people buy them and value them. Trying to say that lockboxes aren't gambling because that value isn't real is just arguing semantics. Semantic arguments may be sufficient to keep this issue out of court, but it doesn't justify the business practice of monetizing art assets through a system whose only purpose is to expoit gambling behaviors on the part of customers.

You tried to argue that you do, in fact, know what's in the lockbox: gear. Evidently you can't redefine "gear" broadly enough to cover sparkle powder, so here we are. The fact is, you really don't khow what's in it. Nice try, saying "gear," though. So now your argument is that you know what isn't in the lockbox: anything of value. Yet people valued the in the ingame items associated with the CE and VIP vendors enough to pay extra for the game. Because, whether or not you wish to assign those ingame items an actual value, people perceive value in such items as exclusive speeders and costume pieces that can't be obtained through gameplay. The perceived value of these virtual items is enough that people will exhibit behaviors associated with gambling; and whether or not you concede that it's really gambling, lockboxes are proven to succeed at exploiting those behaviors. Call it gambling, or not. It doesn't matter. People are going to spend their money gambling on those boxes.

Source? Unless you've got some information I don't, a lockbox doesn't necessarily contain gear. It could contain a vehicle. Or a vanity pet. Or useful consumables like stims. Or useless consumables like sparkle powder. Or a handful of commendations. Or maybe one of those disco ball dance party items. If my experience with random loot boxes from other mmos are any indication, the chances of a lockbox containing gear shall be remote. So, let's please see your evidence re: lockboxes containing gear.

I soloed a lot while leveling my 10 lvl 50s. I really don't like people on the whole. They're imbeciles, mostly. But I do group for WZs and Flashpoints, which are content I consider worth playing. On that note, if you refuse to group for HM Foundry/Maelstrom Prison and SM False Emperor, you will be missing out on a whole lot more than just HK-51. Those flashpoints are some of the most compelling content in the game. They are vital touchstones in the story. I'm pretty confident that most soloists would enjoy making an exception and PUGging those two. I predict that the more painful leg of the journey, for those of you who take the plunge, will be getting to that jawa in Outlaw's Den. See you there!

On the contrary, it's because of everyone else. And making the queue cross-server may not substantially change the proportion of people who queue as DPS/Heals vs. those who queue as Tanks. So: cross-server queueing may not fix the problem. As for me, I've got several tanks. When I queue with them, I too get an insta-pop. Then I get QQ'd at if I pull any trash whatsoever that isn't absolutely necessary. I generally slap the QQers on ignore and there's one less tank in the queue who will run FPs with them. Anyway maybe the problem with queue times is mostly on the community's end. Just saying.

I'm for this. Any functionality that lets me exclude known toolbags from my gameplay experience is a great idea. Also: yo dawg i herd u like 2 q so i put a q in ur q so u can q while u q

SWOR should implement missions like CoH's Radio/Newspaper and Tip missions. So instead of going to do the exact SAME missions every day, send players to a handful of hotspots (so that world pvp will still be encouraged) where they will get randomly-generated missions on randomly-generated maps to accomplish random objectives. Make some of them a bit more challenging than others, just for fun. Then place a cap on how many can be done per day in each hotspot. We'd burn out less quickly because we wouldn't be following the exact same steps by rote every day.--

I don't have the problem on my tanks or healers either. I always get the role I queue them for. And my sentinel never has this problem either, since obviously the only possible role for a Sentinel is DPS. The only character that I have this issue with is my sorc, who almost always gets popped in the healing role, even though I only choose the DPS role when I queue. Yes I could respec for heals and no I don't want to. I have actual healers for that.

Just wanted to say that this is happening to my DPS sorc as well. I queue as DPS only, making absolutely sure that only DPS is checked, wait 20+ minutes for a pop, and get popped in the healing role. Turn down the GF invite, check my GF screen and mysteriously I am now queued as both DPS and Healing. I uncheck Healing, requeue, wait 20+ minutes for a pop, and again get popped in the Healing role. Decline the invite. Check the page again. DPS and Healing are both checked again. This was happening to my wife on her DPS sorc a while back, too. Either this is a commonly-occuring bug (not a rare one), or the GF includes this functionality for situations when there are not enough healers and/or tanks in the queue.

This is a false dichotomy. It isn't the case that bosses are the content and the trash isn't. The flashpoint is the content. The Op is the content. The whole thing, not just bosses. Sure, you can argue that the bosses are the only parts which are challenging--and you'd be wrong. Tthe first few trash pulls in Red Reaper are harder fights by far than any of the bosses in that instance. In EV, one of the "bosses" consists of waves of trash. And anyway, players aren't just skipping trash, but skipping bosses as well. Then complaining that there isn't anything to do in the game. Now as for me, I agree there isn't enough to do in the game, but I don't say that having spacebarred through every VO and skipped every trash pull.