Rift launched with Quad-spec, and I think is up to 6-spec now, though it might still only be 5. The only downside I ever saw to that was that people would simply toss a group of 5 together and then say "what do we have and who's gonna swap to what role so we can do this dungeon? The ability to swap specs on the fly was nothing short of wonderful. That boss slightly too hard? Have the mage swap to a dps/heals hybrid. This boss is hard on melees? Swap to ranged build. This boss calls adds? Swap to AE build. TOR's spoiled me for stories in the games, but Rift spoiled me for multi-specs. I very much miss the ability to change from tank to dps, or dps to heals, as needed to help my group out. That said, I'm willing to wait for them, I just hope they're "soon."

Nope, you don't. Just need to update the mods in it.

Unless the thing specifically says "main hand only" can't you use just about any saber in the offhand also?

I haven't played this in a long time, but my tank pet / healer self combo worked really well. I could solo any overland mob up to and including champions. Might take a while, but was always easy enough to do. Currently running a tankassin self / dps companion combo. I mitigate well enough that anything up to a gold mob is no problem. I've taken a couple of champs here and there, but usually can't damage them enough to win before my health goes out, but if I swap to healer companion for champion fights that works well, though it's pretty slow with the dps loss. I also have a dps-spec'd sage using a tank companion. Since even in dps spec I can heal a bit, it's sort of a hybrid, but it works well. My vanguard runs in tank spec with a healer companion. Combat is slow, but there's no downtime in between so it probably averages out.

I double checked last night and my Ashara is indeed wearing the Force Sentinel Headgear. Un-equipping it restores her head in-game, but not in the companion window. In regular cutscenes as I'm questing, her head is missing also. In Ashara-specific custcenes on my ship, she starts headless, then her head pops in after a second, but then is gone again in the regular game once the cutscene ends.

I noticed this bug this morning. I screenie'd it, but didn't think to much of it. I'm pretty sure I've got her wearing a Force Sentinel Headgear, but I'll have to double-check when I get on tonight.

For me: No pvp, no space missions past level 20, no flashpoints, heroic 2+'s if I can solo them, otherwise not done. Always 3+ levels over for a planet, and have been as high as 6 over on some characters. I do always have rested xp, though, and if I run out on 1 toon, I'll swap to an alt that has some, so I almost never running without it. There does seem to be a bit more xp on the republic side. I'm usually 4-5 levels high on that side, while on Empire I'm only 3-4. I did skip 2.5 planets (Taris, half of Alderaan, Balmorra) on my Vanguard so I went to Hoth "at level" at 38, but still left there at 43 and Belsavis got me to 47. I expect I'll be 50 on that character before making it to Corellia, and this is without going back for the bonus series for Alderaan and later. My current stable of toons is: 1st server: 41 Commando on Quesh 29 Sage on Tat (just finishing it up since she skipped Taris) 29 Shadow on Tat (just starting it becuz she didn't skip anything so far) 4 others in their teens that I don't remember since it's been months since I've been on that server 2nd server: 48 Vanguard on Voss, which (as mentioned) skipped 2.5 planets. 43 Assassin currently running Alderaan bonus. Will go to Belsavis afterward. 38 Sage about 1/4 through Balmorra. 22 Scoundrel about 1/4 through Taris. If you've got rested xp, I don't see how you can't be massively over-level. If you don't have rested bonus, I can see that it'd be a closer thing, especially Empire side, but it still looks like it'd be right in the right neighborhood. If you're doing space and pvp and flashpoints on top of it all, though... back to over-level in a hurry.

http://www.torhead.com Lightning is fine. It's "turret style" meaning you stand and cast a lot, but it's fine to use. Lightning sorcs get more lightning abilities than assassins.

For my Republic toons, I'm generally 4 levels high by the time I hit Taris, and 6 levels high by the time I hit Balmorra, unless I deliberately skip planets (which I sometimes will do, though I still pull away from the recommended levels by the end -- eg, had my Vanguard go to Hoth at 38 and he's now 48 while only halfway through Voss, so will probably be 50 before Corellia). I'm currently working my 1st Imp toon and I'm not quite as far ahead, but I was still 3 levels high when I got to Taris, and expect that I'll be 39 before finishing the main quest series there (38.5 now. . . ) and then will still have the option of doing the bonus series which should get me another level or 2 beyond that, so I'm still "comfortably overlevel" on the Imp side as well. I have done no flashpoints, no warzones, no space missions. This is all from "regular questing."

FWIW, the problem with lag spikes for me that I mentioned from yesterday morning persisted through last night and then this morning as well. Still on wired connection, no other internet usage going on in the house. I was using Mumble to talk to guildies and there was no interruption or lag on it. At one point (11:38 PM Mountain time -- I looked at the clock to make sure we hadn't all hit some unannounced downtime or something) all 3 of us got booted from the server and the game hung returning to server select so we had to Alt-f4 the game and restart it (I was on Taris, they were both running the Black hole dailies, so it wasn't a zone issue -- this was Juyo server), but again... Mumble never hitched, so I know my internet connection and NIC were just fine.

You can. Open the Crew window (default is N) and then there are little x's on the right hand side by each crew skill. Click the x, confirm you want to delete the skill and then go talk to a new trainer. Biochem needs Bioanalysis and Diplomacy to go with it. From there, go harvest some bio-matter using your bioanalysis skill, then send your companion out to craft and thus increase your skill level. Once you hit 20 or 40 skill you get your 1st "heals you and companion" medpack recipe. Then start making it. Rinse and repeat.

I outlevel everything by so much that I don't bother using them on the 1st toons to level up with each faction, but then use them to buy mods for alts as they level up. Though since I have crating alts, it's usually just to "fill holes" where the crafters may be having a hard time getting the RNG to actually give me my blue recipe. Or if I'm out of blue mats and don't feel like waiting for missions to run. I will only by enhancements and mods, though. I won't buy armorings or weapon hilts/barrels. Those make my commendation stockpile go "poof" in a hurry if I do.

Republic side, I tend to be level 20 before I even get to Taris (which is rated 16-20), and then I slowly pull away from the suggested levels of the planets until by Alderaan I am indeed getting quests that are gray when I get them. The exception to this is my Vanguard, which I took great pains to skip planets (other than class quests) in order to keep myself "at level." As it was, I got to Hoth at level 38, so it worked out pretty well. But then I left Hoth at 43, so I was already 2 levels "high" again. I didn't go back and do Alderaan's bonus series, just went on to Belsavis. Left there at 47, so again, a bit high. Voss is supposedly 44-47, and I'm 48 now with plenty of it left to do, plus the Belsavis and Voss bonus series, then I've got Corellia to go. This in spire of being "at level" when I got to Hoth at 38. And as an FYI, I hate pvp, don't like the space missions, and I haven't bothered to ever go to the fleet to try to get into a flashpoint. I can solo the 2+ missions due to being so far above level, and I've not bothered with any 4-mans since Coruscant. I'm working up an Empire toon now also. Same deal -- left DK at 18, left Balmorra at 23, began pulling more and more away from the suggested level range with each successive planet. Currently level 38 and maybe 1/2 done with Taris, so I expect I'll be 40 before I'm done there. And on this toon I've been skipping the 2+ missions also. Gear is all orange with level 37 mods, so it's right up to date. This is for both myself and my companion. So.... as others have said, you can happily and easily solo all the way to 50. You don't need flashpoints or heroic quests for good gear, as the xp they give is negligible compared to everything you get in the normal course of questing and you can get "good gear" more easily by other methods anyway.

I'm running tank spec with Andronikos doing dps. He rarely gets hit (generally only if we get one of the "pop in surrounding you but at range" fights) and thus rarely needs to be healed. And he kills things fast enough that I don't die either ;-) Then a couple of seconds of Shadowboxing (or seething, if you aren't the best SI race ) after the fight and we're all good to go again.

For me, I sometime just get lag spikes. Doesn't matter if I'm playing wired or wireless. Most days are fine, but every so often. . . . If I'm playing wireless I'll often lose connection to the server during these spikes, where if I'm wired in then I'll usually just have 5 seconds of lag or so. My internet and router are perfectly fine. I can be watching streaming tv over wireless (love my Roku box!) and have no hitches in it at all while my connection to TOR is flapping. I was wired in this morning and getting the lag spikes every 5 minutes or so and no other internet was being used at all. Seems to happen to me about 2x every 3 weeks, so it's not often, but it's often enough that I've seen the pattern.

Left click has never "done anything" for me other than select a target. It's always been right-click to interact. sounds like you were bugged before and are now fixed. That or you mapped your left click to interact also and that keymapping has been removed.

I have a dps sorc and a tankassin too. Both are level 38 now, and I have great fun with both. That said, overall I think I prefer the sorc. but I've always loved the ranged dps playstyle far more than melee, no matter the game, so the fact that I'm enjoying the tankassin as much as I am should tell you it's darn fun!

Heavily Tattooed?!?!?!?! Sure there are a few tattoos on the sides of her head, but nothing on the face or the back. since the back's what you see while playing and the face during the cutscenes. . . . .I don't even notice my Ratta's tattoos anymore.

I went Rattataki. I liked their look better.

And on the Assassin side, how exactly do you get your healing companion before level 40-42-ish? It's awesome to have it by 24 on the Repub side, but it's a bit rough on the Imp ;-) Though I've been finding having a dps companion works just fine for me so far (level 37).

I'm leveling as a tank and I find that 2 silvers will do far more damage to me than a gold. With our CC, so long as it's not against droids, I can easily take out groups of 2 golds in H2's. I can usually sol any H2, really, so long as I turn off my companion's ae's and we focus fire and I can CC one of the mobs in a group. Sometimes it works to Mind Maze the one, lift a 2nd, then attack the 3rd, as it gives you 8 seconds without the dps of the 2nd one coming at you either. Overall I'm really enjoying leveling in Darkness spec. I haven't tried leveling as a dps spec at all, so I don't know how those work.

No tank really does that much dps. That said, the Darkness Assassin/Kinetic Combat Shadow is generally "felt" to do the most damage. No idea, actually. I've got a 48 vanguard, but haven't done anything other than level in tank spec with it. Tankassin/KC Shadow does decent dps, has some self heals, and all this while in tank spec. Hell no. Typically the Sith outnumber the Jedi. This isn't true on every server, but on the 2 servers I play on it seems that the Imp side is decently populated and the Repub side is a ghost town. N/A I find them all to be fine, but I do prefer the Imp ones. Yes

Once I got Andronikos I upgraded his guns to blue barrels and then never looked back. He makes things die MUCH faster than Khem Val does. Killing a silver I'll be down at around 80% health when it dies if I use Khem, but I'll be at 92-95% using Andronikos due ot less time for the thing to hit me. AE groups die faster as well. I sometimes finish them with 98% health still. I much prefer Andronikos, just make sure he's got his guns up to date for your level.

Last night I finished up the main part of Tatooine on my Assassin and dinged 31 while doing it. I now have the bonus series to do, so I expect I'll be 33 before I leave the place. As others have said: Don't stealth to avoid combat. In my experience my kill xp earned while doing the quests is at least 3x the quest reward, and the bonus quests you find from killing mobs while in the course of doing your quests is easily 50% of the final quest reward as well. Over time, this missed xp really adds up if you're just stealthing past everything and only killing the minimum necessary for the main quests.

Seems that not too many people like the "turret style" gameplay that the full lightning spec has. It's perfectly viable, though, so if you like it, then go for it.