You're probably not high enough level. I ran into that same issue. The next step is to talk to someone in the cantina. Since your class quests all take place pretty close, it'd be hard to miss them.

Cunning doesn't compete with Power on gear anyway, so why does it matter? There isn't a place to trade Cunning for secondary stats. This discussion only matters when you're replacing lower level gear with higher level gear, where secondary stats might be different. This isn't an issue at endgame (while yes, you're replacing gear, you wouldn't think of putting on a piece of gear with def and shield on it over DPS secondary stats).

That's very odd. I'm a Powertech, and I was able to take the Mercenary set (and I did, because i like the color scheme better). Seems like it should go the other way. The about The Last Pirates quest? I believe that one gets you the legs, do you get the Powertech option there?

Make is your only romance option as a male BH. Female BH also only get one option as well. So in short, if you're a DS BH, send Mako away before convos and/or be prepared to give her a lot of gifts if you want to romance her.

Can you fly to the Tyrant directly from your space map? That's where the escape pod takes you anyway. After you finish up your quest, somehow your ship is there and you fly away on it. Other than that, I'm not sure what else you could do. If you can abandon the quest, you could try that. Maybe you can pick it up again at the holorecorder?

Honestly, if you hate merc that much, reroll powertech. It doesn't take nearly as long on the second play since you can skip all the dialogue. If you don't want to do that, absolutely do all the side quests you can now. Going the way you're going, you risk finishing the quest content before hitting 50. At that point, there's no way to earn exp except space combat, pvp, and dailies. Going back to do grey quests doesn't help, because grey quests don't give exp anymore.

Here's a rough breakdown of the abilities you'd have as a Merc: Bounty Hunter Baseline Skills: Rail Shot: 15 second cooldown, instant cast. (pyro uses this more often because it can reset the cooldown) Missile Blast: Due to its high heat cost, hardly ever used once you get better abilities. But it's instant and ranged, and is an option when you need it. Unload: 15 second cooldown, 2 second channel. Fires from both blasters. Arsenal Mercs get talents to buff this skill's damage and reset its cooldown. Pyro Mercs use it to reset Rail Shot. Explosive Dart: 15 second cooldown, instant cast. Causes AOE damage after 2 seconds. Incapacitates weak and standard targets (not players). Merc skills: Power Shot: 1.5 second cast, no cooldown. This is the Merc filler move, used when everything else is on cooldown. Arsenal Mercs get Tracer Missile at 20 to replace this. Fusion Missile: 1.5 second cast Sweeping Blasters: Channelled AOE skill. Very expensive, can't spam. Arsenal skills: Tracer Missile: 1.5 second cast, no cooldown. Replacement for Power Shot. Synergizes with many Arsenal talents, so it is cast frequently. There's a lot of hate for this skill which I think is mostly due to its animation. It draws attention, so it becomes a scapegoat. Heatseeker Missiles: 15 second cooldown, instant. Buffed by Tracer Missile stacks. Pyro skills: Incendiary Missile: instant cast, no cooldown. Causes a 15 second DoT. Handy for preventing capping, but expensive to use on multiple players. Thermal Detonator: shares a cooldown with Explosive Dart. Does not do AOE damage, but does more single target damage. 2 second delay on damage. Ok, so basically an Arsenal Merc is a pretty stationary beast. Rail Shot and Heatseeker Missiles can each be used every 15 seconds, but other than that the primary DPS skills are Unload and Tracer Missile, both require no moving. A Pyro Merc gets a bit more mobility in the form of more Rail Shots from the cooldown being reset, as well as Incendiary Missile and Thermal Detonator to add to the Arsenal. It sounds like Pyro Merc is closest to what you're looking for. There's a thread on Pyro Merc in the Mercenary Forums here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=171953

No, there's not a difference in gear stat selection. Crit and Surge are popular options due to the increased crit damage on Rail Shot and Thermal Detonator, especially with the extra crit on Rail Shot from the 4pc Eliminator bonus.

First thing is please don't pick your AC based on current balance. If you do, there will be a patch that's going to make you regret your decision. Pick it based on playstyle. I'm going to talk about the DPS aspect of each AC, since if you want to tank or heal your decision is simple. Mercenary DPS is done from range. For DPS, you can select from Arsenal or Pyrotech. Arsenal Mercs need to stand still to do most of their DPS. Their primary spell is Tracer Missile, a spell which gets a lot of flak due to it's very loud and visual animation. Though Mercs wield two blasters, the second blaster is mostly a stat stick and for aesthetics, due to a severe reduction in damage and accuracy from your offhand weapon. In short, Arsenal Mercs are often described as mobile turrets, in that they can move around the battlefield, but stand still when it's time to bring the pain. I'll compare the differences in the Pyro trees below. Powertech DPS is done from close range. The Advanced Prototype Powertech has great mobility with access to passive speed increase and an on demand 8 second Sprint with snare immunity. Advanced Prototype is closest to a true melee spec, with Retractable Blade and Rocket Punch requiring the player to be within 4m. There is some freedom to back away when those skills are not being used (on cooldown, DoT applied), but you can't get further than 10m away without losing access to your main filler, Flame Burst, as well as your tree's top skill, Immolate. AP suffers right now from a perceived lack of damage. Without meters it's hard to say how much it suffers, but most players feel that Pyro does significantly more damage. As for Pyro, both specs have access to it. The Pyro tree focuses around resetting the Rail Shot cooldown. Powertech does it with Rocket Punch and Flame Burst (instant close range skills), while Mercenary uses Unload and Power Shot (30m range, cast time skills). It's my opinion that if you want to play Pyro, Powertech synergizes much better. There are Rail shot boosting talents in the bottom of both Shield Tech and Advanced Prototype for Pyros to pick up, as well as boosts to fire damage and tech crit. That's not to say that Merc Pyros are ineffective. Merc Pyros get increased mobility due to picking up some extra instant skills, and can do respectable damage as well. As for other skills, Powertechs get access to a tanking stance, taunts, and Guard, allowing them to offtank in PvE, or get protection points in PvP. Mercenarys get healing spells, allowing them to offheal if needed, or get healing points in PvP. There are hybrid specs for both classes that leverage these benefits for medal farming or just trying to maximize utility. Mercs also pick up some decent additional AOE skills in Fusion Missile and Sweeping Blasters, while Powertechs have to rely on the shared skills Death from Above, Flamethrower, and Explosive Dart for AOE. As you level up in the starting zone, ask yourself how you find yourself playing. Do you engage your enemies from range or do you run in? Do you move around a lot while you fight? Is your favorite skill Rocket Punch or Unload? What have you enjoyed playing in other games? If you've played a ranged caster before, you're probably used to needing to stay stationary for DPS. If you've always tended toward melee classes, Powertech might be a better fit. Good luck with the decision. Both specs are capable of good DPS and have viable PvP specs. And once again, you shouldn't choose your Advanced Class based on current balance anyway, as you can definitely expect that to change. Take the one that fits your playstyle, and enjoy yourself.

It's like that so that after you get to the top of your tree, you have interesting things in the others trees to grab. It also allows the Shield Tech tree to have some options to pick from a few threat talents instead of having everything based on survival.

Honestly, I wouldn't use Carolina Parakeet for leveling, because it doesn't function well until you have both Prototype Particle Accelerator and Flame Shield, first achievable at level 44. Until then, you're probably better off sticking to one tree or the other, then respec if you want to later.

I had trouble with Tyresius as well. Both my Merc and Powertech ended up doing the same thing. I killed the droid, died, rezzed, reset, then fought Tyresius 1 on 1. First off, use the Ion Gas Cylinder and put on a shield generator. You'll lose some DPS, but you'll be able to take a lot more hits. Turn off Mako's DPS abilities to make sure she focuses on healing. Use Electro Dart, On the Hunt, Electro Dart again when it wears off, followed by Energy Shield. Use Electro Dart on cooldown. I don't remember if I had Kolto Overload back then, use it at half health if you do. Use Quell to interrupt any casts you can. Other than that, just keep your DPS rotation up. You'll need to keep IM up for the burn effect since CGC won't be there. I fought him at 27, and he's a 28 elite. If you finish Tattooine's quests then go back to him, you might have an extra level or two. Spend your Tattooine commendations to get a better barrel if you need one.

Carbonize breaks if you have the Combat Tech 2 piece bonus. Supercommando works fine.

I'd also mention that it's not essential that you hold aggro on everything. You need to collect the big hitters, but DPSers can take a few hits from Strong and under without dying. If your DPSers are all hitting different targets, that's a communication issue. I prefer pull kill order to go from weak up. The DPS will be able to quickly take care of weak and standard enemies while I grab Elites first, then grab strongs, focusing on whatever the DPS are currently hitting, or will be hitting first. Flame Sweep is too expensive to spam. Hit it once when you've got some mobs gathered and that's it (but don't go over 40). Generally overheating as a tank is caused by trying to do too much at the start of the pull. I honestly had issues at the lower levels until I got Heat Blast. It also gets better as your shield chance goes up, as Shield Vents will proc more consistently. Fortunately, with good use of CC, and a clear priority, anything can be handled at the lower levels.

Cunning gives a bonus to tech attacks. But Aim gives the same bonus to tech attacks, while also buffing ranged attacks as well. Therefore, mever choose cunning over aim.

Energy damage is mitigated by armor. Elemental and Internal is not.

I'm not sure the build would be better than a full Pyro build, but if the concept is sound, there's some things I'd change: You have two points in Energy Rebounder. Why? They're not needed to get to the next tier, and they add no DPS benefit. I'd take one of those points and grab Retractable Blade. You already have Hot Iron, which boosts RB's damage, and since you'll use HEG, you'll get a bonus to internal damage as well. I'm not sure Burnout does much for you either. Burnout is only going to affect the IM DoT (and the tech crit). Might be better spent in Rail Loaders. If I were trying to get the best of both worlds, I'd say you've already got the best of Pyro in the first 18 points. I'd put the rest into AP to grab Charged Gauntlets for more RS crits. You'll also grab free Rocket Punches (reducing heat load further), and you'll buff your RB as well with Serrated Blades. Here's how I'd do it: http://knotor.com/skills#AgMAFxJCUWpzipGaoaq6yttzgoqRq7rS2wAA Is it going to beat full Pyro? Probably not. Your heat management will be easier, but I think you give up too much synergy to get it. Flamethrower is currently simming to be a DPS gain when used, so I grabbed Prototype Flamethrower to buff it further, but maybe that's not worth it. Between RB, IM, RP, and FT, you might end up with a heat issue anyway. I'm not sure that 8 heat/6 seconds is that huge of a gain. You get a very similar gain from the Automated Defenses talent in the cooldown reduction on TSO. It's probably a bit less overall.

Kolto Vents only works with the Vent Heat skill, not heat venting from any other source. IGC grants a large amount of survivability gain. Sure, you sacrifice a small amount of mobility (passive run speed is nice, but as a carrier you'll often be snared anyway), but you need survival as a carrier. I honestly think the build is really well put together. It's designed to excel at one role (running the ball). Hydraulic Overrides is an amazing skill for moving down the field. Sure, Jet Charge is a great mobility skill, but you need an opponent in the right position, and guess what: it puts you right next to the enemy, ready to be disabled in turn. Hydraulic Overrides lets you run ahead of everyone else while they can do nothing do stop you. Hydraulic Overrides literally says: you are immune to all cc effects 25% of the time. You'd take the talent any day of the week, even without the speed increase. Your biggest threat to getting the ball in the goal is being controlled. Hydraulic Overrides is the best talent to negate that.

I've assumed a straight stack, but I haven't seen anyone present any data that's tested that assumption.

If you don't want to lose damage, your only option is to stay full pyro. AP sims well, but actual gameplay mechanics prevent you from reaching the potential of the tree (you can't always use FB on cooldown because you have to be moving, for example).

Maybe the DPS specs should get their own thread for analysis, but I think there's room for improvement in this rotation (and the CP rotation as well). At 36 seconds, you cast an IM that takes you to 54 heat. This is then followed by 4 rapid shots to make up for it. This could have been avoided if during the previous global (34.5 seconds), the player noticed the IM dot about to fall off and hit rapid shots instead of FB so that they'd have room for it. This happens at 54 seconds as well. The IM takes you to 49 heat, requiring 3 rapid shots afterwards to cooldown. A proper rotation would need to watch the duration left on IM, and make sure that heat levels were under 15 as the DoT expires so that IM can be immediately refreshed, not casting IM no matter what. Of course, the player should also know to ignore that rule when TSO is off cooldown. I don't know how much of a difference it would make, but it certainly would help both CP and full Pyro. Another question is in the IM mechanics. I was under the impression that the DoT lasts 15 seconds, but in your sim the first tick happens 3 seconds after the initial hit, and then lasts 15 seconds from there (meaning 18 seconds between IM casts). Is that how it works in game? I'm at work at the moment so I can't test myself.

Yeah, I don't understand the hate for TD in PvE. It costs 16 heat (same as flame burst), and does WAY more than FB. True, you can't proc PPA with TD, but the damage difference has to make up for it. I use TSO for IM, since that's the most expensive ability Pyros use. I don't see why you'd use it on anything else.

For what it's worth, I think the reason Bounty Hunters use pistols is for the sake of their animation. Bounty Hunters have many animations that use some sort of device on one arm. But the blaster rifle models in game are two-handed weapons. The first time I watched a video of a trooper holding a blaster I saw why the Bounty Hunter doesn't use one. Since a pistol is a one-handed weapon, it's easy for the weapon model to stay in the BH's hand while using a flamethrower, or a railshot, or a missile blast. But a blaster rifle wouldn't work the same. The BH would constantly be putting his hand back on the gun again in between animations, and that would end up looking kinda silly. The other alternative would be to have it holster whenever you use an ability, but that looks dumb too. I realize the obvious response to this is just let us hold a rifle in one-hand, but the reality is the models just aren't designed to be held like that. Even in a game with space travel and lasers, there has to be an internal consistency, and unfortunately, that wouldn't work so well. All that said, I think it would be cooler to use a Blaster Rifle, but I don't think it's gonna happen for the above reasons (at least not for a long while).

Are the rotations for your most recent sims the same as the ones in the first post? I think it would be helpful if you could post the best rotations you've found, so that we can use them. Another question for the Unload rotation, does your sim account for pushback due to incoming damage? I imagine that would be a difficult thing to include since the mechanics aren't really clear due to no combat log. But if we can expect to lose a tick of damage whenever using Unload while tanking, that will probably erase the 20 dps difference between the 31pt ST specs.

Pyro is great for leveling. I've been Pyro since 22, currently 47. Consensus on AP is that it's kinda lackluster right now.