If it has been at least a week since your last free respec, it starts over at 0 and builds from there again. There is no UI feedback on where you are until after you agree to pay the costs. If it's free, you won't lose any credits, and your next respec will be cheap again.

I'm level 47 and have been pyro since 22. I can't solo heroic 2+, but I do feel like my killing speed is much higher. I dabbled in shield tech a couple times, once at 30 for jet charge, and once at 40 when I could fill the tree out. Jet charge is a fun skill, I just didn't like the st playstyle as much as pyro. Survivability was way higher. There were a few fights as st where I'm not sure I would have survived as pyro, but I still went back.

The Mercenary Elite Prototype Boots are a quest reward, not a drop (as far as I know). They're a reward from the end of the major questline on Taris. Click on the spoiler for more info: They're bind on pickup, so I doubt they drop from anywhere else.

Not really sure how ap/pyro is supposed to give you some sort of aoe/dps/tank build. Honestly, i'd pick a tree and stick with it until higher levels because the key talents you'd need to make a hybrid build work wouldn't be available until then anyway. Shield tech starts to shine when you pick up flame shield. Pyro at prototype particle accelerator. I haven't played ap, but you'd at least want retractable blade, maybe even charged gauntlets.

Tracer missile only costs 16 heat in a merc spec. The tooltip does not update to reflect this, but the reduction comes from the talent muzzle fluting. So if you cast tracer missile twice, your heat will be 16+16-15=17. Not 50. The -15 comes from the heat dissipation during the 3 seconds (5 per second when below 40 heat) it takes to cast two missiles. If you get crits, you get free venting, reducing your heat further. Edit: math correction

All? Pretty sure pyro mercs still use power shot and unload.

It's basically the same. Mako just has a crisis of conscience.

Do not choose your advanced class based on current game balance. If you can be assured of anything in an MMO, it's that balance will be changed often. Pick this advanced class that matches your playstyle. Powertech DPS is just fine. Anyone who says otherwise is frankly just guessing anyway, since there currently aren't any tools to actually compare DPS.

Perhaps try respeccing? It could be that after the patch, the game isn't properly recognizing your talents (notably muzzle fluting, perhaps?).

I think this bug might have something to do with the auto-unstuck code. Ever jump off a ledge onto something unstable and had your character hover but not land? After a moment, your character will teleport back to where they jumped from. I wonder if that code is interacting with the rocket punch knockback such that the enemy's character thinks it's stuck and teleports back. Just a theory.

So I'm just gonna go on record and say that I don't think the Carolina Parakeet is a great name for this build. It's kind of a funny idea the first time you hear it, but it just doesn't make sense. The main problem with it is I can't imagine trying to explain to anyone who doesn't read this forum what the hell I'm talking about referring to the Carolina Parakeet build. You're immediately forced to redescribe the build anyway, merely wasting time. Another concern is what happens when BioWare rebalances the talent trees? What if the ST/Pyro hybrid build still works, but with a different point distribution. Now the name makes no sense whatsoever. I think it makes far more sense to name a build after its characteristics. ST/Pyro, while generic, is instantly understood at least. For a little more flare, you could call it the Rocketeer build (for Jet Charge), or the Hadron Supercollider (Prototype Particle Accelerator + Jet Charge (collider)). Just my thoughts.

I'm not sure it's THAT problematic. Tanks historically don't have resistance to magic or bleed damage. It's not necessarily game-breaking by itself. That's not to say that it couldn't be a problem. If for example, most bosses did a majority of their damage through those types of attacks, it would mean that tanks were no better at taking damage than anyone else. But as far as I know, that's not the case. Your typical mob uses simple attacks most of the time, which are aviodable and subject to mitigation from both armor and shields. Certain powerful attacks may bypass defenses, but that is also common for PvE encounter design.

There was no way I was going to leave Tarro's fate up to mere collateral damage. I let him out, let him suit up, beat his ***, and shot him. I wanted him to know before he died who was the better man. Leaving him in his cell just wouldn't have done that.

Make absolutely sure it's a shield generator and not a power generator. Power generators are the DPS offhands, Shield Generators are the tanking offhands. All shield generators have a shield chance and absorb amount.

I actually had the opposite experience as you. I switched from Adv Proto to Pyrotech at 23 and never looked back. I was killing mobs way faster as Pyro than AP. My basic combat technique is pretty simple. I will typically IM -> Railshot the toughest mob in the pack, then tab target to the weaker mobs and FB all of them to get dots ticking everywhere. I also keep Rocket Punch on cooldown and use any RS procs that come up. Once all the small adds are down, I go back to the strongest and finish him off with a simple priority: RS proc, Rocket Punch, FB. IM is not worth using on < silver mobs because they won't last the full duration of the dot and the heat isn't worth it. But if you don't like it, Adv Proto is a fine spec too. I just felt like it wasn't blooming the way Pyro did for me.

I don't understand why you'd use unload. Flame burst automatically puts up cgc, and you hit it plenty to not have to worry about needing to proc cgc. Using unload to do it means less PPA procs as well. Anyway, the theorycraft is interesting. I hadn't thought of using RB with a pyro build. Are you sure it would do more than using TD on cooldown? The toolitip would indicate that TD does a lot more, plus it would allow you to take the rest of the pyro tree for more synergy.

So base stats not upgrading is just a display bug? I was curious about this as well. I was testing a green gun vs the great hunt blaster with blue mods in it, and noticed the base weapon damage didn't change, so I left the great hunt blaster in my hold. For that reason, I've been ignoring my older moddable gear, am I to understand that I should take another look? I've got a bunch of saved commendations that I didn't know what else to do with. I'm glad I kept that gear, though.