Exactly. They seem to be looking for kills and action, not at successfully completing the mission. I've never understood the excitement of killing bots. The coms and achievements at the end are what I'm looking for. The OBJECTIVE can often be achieved without striking a blow and can be accomplished faster with a few judicious cc's. . Yet so many players don't care.

I blame power leveling in Kuat Drive Yards. The boosting and lack of tactical variety creates bad habits. Also, the environment ensures that other members of the group you're in cover your mistakes, or try to. The overall result is a sterile learning environment. Even single-player is better if you, for instance, do some Hero 4's solo. That requires some tactics. Less subjectively: 1. CC's are very useful if you're pugging a group and, for instance, find yourself in a hard mode flash point with a tank who hasn't broken 30K in hit points yet and a DPS who was lower, as happened to me this weekend. My HEALER had 4K more hitpoints than the tank. 2. I had a DPS target somebody I'd stunned -- four times in a row in the same flashpoint. Not AOEs or anything like that. He targeted and leaped to the guy I'd just stunned. I told him about the problem after watching three times — and he did it again. That's not forgetfulness or being new. That's a habit. 3. Had a guy who got us all killed once. Revived, hadn't even healed all the way up yet and he attacked again. While we were all lying there dead a second time, he at least apologized said he was pressed for time. I replied "Then we don't have time to die, do we?" No problems after that. When you're with people you know, you can skip cc's. When you're with people you don't know, not so much.

Whatever that means.

I have twelve toons. Fortunately, all the 55s and some lower ones are millionaires. So no, 2K is not a lot of money. But I am having to pay for nothing -- 2k for three hours of NOT being dragged in to the event. 2k for three hours of being left alone. It's more if you die, because the vaccine doesn't persist. I don't begrudge this useless expense because it's a popular event. It's a price I'm willing to pay, but the people who don't like getting ripped off, in principle, have a point. And I'm a subscriber. The F2P people who haven't yet mastered money management have a real gripe.

Whether or not you enjoy it, the event is forced. Almost any other aspect of the game -- even some entire planets -- are take it or leave it. You never have to PvP or go to CZ-198, for instance, if you don't want to. Yet you can't even go to a vendor and spend planetary coms, for instance, without getting spewed upon in this event if your toon's a high-enough level. I don't begrudge those who enjoy this popular event, but not everyone who doesn't like it is a whiner -- no more than everybody who does is a griefer.

I must disagree with the original post, largely because of one factor. There are few pleasures in any game quite as gratifying as hearing a Sith drone on about how he or she is all-powerful and going to tear you to pieces, then dirty kicking the fiend as soon as the fight starts.

This is the answer I'm waiting for, although I believe you did address that issue by saying that Kinetic was still strong. Just not as strong. I'm PvE who used a 31 KC build. My big problem with 1.3 is that my best friend in the game is a DPS Counselor Sage. Now that I'm not the tank I used to be, we're in a dilemma. We have to ask whether two DPS are really viable, particularly in boss fights. I had no problem with the patch with the KC build until getting into a tough boss fight. Then I died rapidly. The 1.3 patch reduced survivability while greatly boosting threat generation. Therefore, the boss stuck to me like a bulldog while I died faster than the healer that my friend and I teamed up with could stem the damage. So now I wonder if using force technique would cool down the threat generation and if force strike would make up for what I lost in other things by not having Combat Technique available. I hated to give up kinetic ward and force pull, so did what I could to keep them. When I was done on the skill calculator, the feeling that the build was familiar was overwhelming. I didn't recognize it right off. Then a look through your Youtube videos solved the mystery: It was your 23/1/17 build, almost a direct copy. Yet you don't have your 23/1/17 build in this latest post. What is your recommendation on that in light of 1.3?

The sticky should be removed from this. Since 1.3, it is no longer even remotely relevant. To leave it stickied is grossly misleading.

Think David Craig as James Bond when you think of a Sith Warrior playing on the light side. He can kill you with little trouble, but why bother? Make it worth his trouble, though, and you will regret it. You just won't regret it long. So far, at least, this is the only Empire class I enjoy -- and it's rapidly becoming my favorite, Republic or Empire.. I'm up to level 13 and haven't earned a dark side point yet. Haven't had to do anything forced, dumb. silly or contrived either. There's been some moments when he didn't get any light side points because the light side option seemed too flagrantly soft, but there's always been a way forward so far. The script is very well done. For instance, there was one mission where I thought I would simply have to go dark, but the Sith in charge was such an arrogant jerk, I could take the light side option and convincingly do it out of spite.

OK. Let me get this straight: Bioware nerfs the Shadow because PvP players whine and too many PvE players can solo on too many quests. At the same time, they leave my first Shadow stranded on a PvE that's so deserted by players, it literally hasn't completed it's class quest because there are barely enough people on Illum to form a full group even if everyone went on the same mission. I've been a friendly, helpful player who has enough friends and enough guildmates that I could finish if I was willing to plead a little. I simply made the decision to start over on another server because I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription for a single-player game. Someday, they'll allow transfers. Then I'll complete that quest. I'll just have to have a bigger, stronger group since I'll no longer be able to pull as much of my own weight. ===================== Another factor here is the perception that people play Shadows because they are overpowered. Well, I've played a Shadow since the Beta, when they were generally agreed to be underpowered. Mine was certainly badly underpowered before I read forums and learned a decent build and rotation. I've tried most other classes, and simply have more fun with Shadows than any other.

My character's still infected. Clearly infected characters of others are running around. So, do I just not vaccinate and let the character die? Is that all I have to do? Or is there some other total BS I have to deal with?

Logged in during the middle of the night last night to check on an old character and send another player an e-mail on a very underpopulated server. Wasn't even going to play. Just making plans with an old bud to hunt some datacrons the next day. My character happened to be on republic fleet. As soon as I logged in, somebody came over and threw up on him. There were only eight people, myself included, on Republic Fleet at the time. Sent my e-mail and signed out. Just checked on him now, after the "plague" is over. He's still infected. This "event" was nothing but an annoyance for me. Might also be an expense if I have to pay 2K credits for nothing.

Like the sig.

Re: OP No.

In every game -- MMO or single-player makes no difference -- there are people obsessed with getting the best gear. While they're hanging around the auction block afraid of not getting the best deal, I'm playing the game, improving my skill and learning a lot from better players. I like it that way.

You're not the first person this happened to. Hit "n" to bring up your companion selection screen and the problem should disappear forever, if the patch hasn't fixed it already.

Agreed.

I'm a level 49 shadow, and this is my first MMO. First. Ever. I've been extremely pleased with the choice of Jedi Shadow and have never felt "stuck." Not once. The great benefit of the shadow for solo play is, if you do have to repeat a mission, you can do so without having to fight every enemy all over again. You just slide by and fight the boss. This is for information purposes, not a boast: One night I couldn't find assistance for a Hero 4 mission I wanted to do. So I did it. Solo. My character was the right level too, not overpowered. Never died. Never could have down it without a Shadow's stealth. It was on Balmora. I had to switch on terminals in a building filled with bugs. Got them all, first try.

I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned this. It's not a "secret weapon" or anything. It's just one more attack you can use to interrupt -- that has only a 30 sec cooldown. It increases the frequency and tempo of interrupting attacks once you unlock it to where it does not require stealth. And its extremely useful in the rest of the game. Is there anything more fun than kicking some gargantuan creature to the ground? No, I don't think so.

"Choose" is the key word here. It is possible to get a PvP flag by accident. For instance, if you join a group with someone who has a PvP flag on. Then you run into vultures prowling PvE servers looking for easy meat. I had it happen to me once. I'd grouped with two people flagged for PvP because they were on a tough mission and asked for my help. They also summoned another friend of theirs. I stepped outside the cave we were in so the 4th member could "see" us on the map better and was immediately pounced upon by someone too high up in levels to be in that area. But I had the distinct pleasure of watching by two new, nearby PvP friends come rushing out and killing his trolling rear end by force-pushing him off a cliff. ========= So let me ask the obvious question here: If you want PvP, why are posters here so interested in attacking people on PvE servers?

I got flagged when I grouped with people who had PvP flags on but needed some help on a tough mission. Then some bushwhacker got me when I came out alone, outside the cave the rest of the group was in. I ventured out so a fourth group member player could "see" us on the map and join us. While "dead", I had the distinct pleasure of watching my two new, powerful PvP friends come rushing out when they realized what had happened. They didn't just kill him, but did it by knocking his sorry bushwhacking rear end right off a cliff.

I have scores of commendations, and finally went to a commendation vendor. Nothing he had was better than the equipment I have already. Should I buy stuff merely to sell? Reverse engineer it? Suggestions welcome.

No, I would not say that experience was typical. This is the first MMO I've ever played and most people are actually quite helpful.

Agreed, and particularly relevant to the OP. Wave won't help the poster beat those swarms when there's a big enemy in there too, but Mind Maze will.

Fair enough, Zuraki, but the OP's question was about soloing. Sounds like your advice is to not use force wave in soloing. That's fine, but needed to be said.