Not sure what I want either. It would be nice if we were made stronger in PVE, but I am not sure how they could do it within the limits of what they are likely WILLING to consider. I am hoping that they will consider at least a tree option to make SRMP longer lasting but heal the same per tick. Also make KC either cheaper to cast or more powerful. (either cast on more players or do more healing -- prefer it to hit more players for the same cost) I just don't see them doing anything with defensive screen, or giving us any sort of comparable ability to Sage FA.

I thought I was adressing both sides of that, I do think its viable as a spec. You have to learn to work around our weaknesses and get used to using a lot more "maintainence cooldowns" than other healers. (CH/Pugnacity, ect) If you aren't doing very high end content its VERY viable, and competitive with other healers. Once highest possible HPS becomes an issue we are a bit gimped. I never have a problem healing with HM FPs. During ops I lose too many cooldowns to keeping everything running. If Sages weren't so obviously OP then it would not be an issue -- but they ARE. I like your idea of an attack buff, but it really would be better on SRMP, and should stack just like SRMP. 2 GCDs should be enough to keep it from being overpowered. DPS shouldn't be taking that much damage and KP isn't worth casting just for a buff. A hardcore group will DEMAND that the buff be on the DPS fulltime as well as healing you realize. It might even be a good fit on KC instead of increasing how many targets. Self limiting to 4 with a decent cooldown.

Not really disagreeing that it CAN be great. But its currently the most restricted due to how our energy works compared to Force and Ammo. Our big nuke heals are very equal, as far as it goes (and we tend to stack crit so we may even do a bit better) but we can't SPAM them like a commando or sage. So we have to fall back on our other tools. SRMP is our best one, IMO, but most if not all players will take a Force Shield over a pair of SRMPs any day -- and I am one of them. (2 GCDs for us, versus one for the Sage) EMP is one of the BEST tools, and it saves energy -- but the one time you REALLY need it on an enrage and UH isn't up then the tank (or yourself) dies. A few times and you don't get invited back. The problem is that if someone DOES have a FS on them then your SRMPs are usually gone before the bubble goes down. DURING a fight you don't have time to recast on everyone, so just the tank and spot heals get it cast on them. (and if the guy you spotted with one or two dies then "its your fault!" again) Nobody ever *expects* more than a bubble from a Sage as a spot heal. When it goes down and they pot and still go down its not blamed on the Sage. Its not fair, but it is what we have to deal with.

To some extent, yes. But all guilds that are pushing hard on doing nightmare/16s are min-maxxers. Spending a lot of credits for very small increases, requiring stims, paying people to buff them if they are missing a specific class, ect... I was bumped for a Commando for just that reason.. tank heals. When I was on my alt listening to them talk about how well they could tank heal I knew I was screwed. I had already been bumped the week before so they could test out a new sage. (they are recruiting for 16 man, but aren't there yet -- so its not just me that there wasn't space for -- and we were short a tank to at least go do HMs at the same time) So now I have to learn a new spec, and hope I get the time to do it. I never ran DPS spec as I was levelling up. I *know* that I wasn't doing very well at it, and had to go change my spec again after my first attempt. (mind you I had no prep or chance to practice with it before an op) I still think I am more useful as a healer, but with KC as it is we are sorta gimped.... most expensive and least useful of the AOE heals in my opinion. I never have claimed to be one of those "super-spec" hardcore players. I aim for competent and upper-middle of the pack since I am casual and have a lot of alts. Usual guild politics. If they annoy me too much or I really hate DPS spec there are always other guilds doing progression. Hopefully we get a bit tweaked during 1.2, that would GREATLY help in how we are percieved. Even if its minor it may be enough to get us a second look from the min-max crowd.

My take on it as a scoundrel healer is that we are more viable for FPs and HMs and less so for operations. (unless your operation tends towards each healer only healing their own group -- mine don't work out that way) For comparison I have a SI healer at level 41 who has done a lot of regular FPs. The issue I run into is most raidleaders have no clue about how our healing works. We do great as a MT healer -- we can conserve energy and use a lot of SRMPs. General healing over the whole raid will run us dry fast. What always happens is they assign the sage to the tank for bubbles (mitigation) and heals and have me do spots. Its when I try to suggest switching that it usually doesn't go well because "everyone knows sages are better healers and we don't want the tank to die..." -- perception kills us. Then as soon as they have a second sage or a Commando healer available for that second slot guess who gets cut? Been there, been cut. I think its a very viable class, but you do have a bit less leeway for errors (as someone above noted) and it definitely works best if your group is well geared. If your group is pushing hard on progression then it only takes a few "out of energy" moments to get a bad rep. In the end I re-specced to DPS, I preferred healing but after the second day of raiding when I was left playing an alt and listening in on teamspeak it was time to change. We needed DPS a lot more than a 3rd or 4th healer. Hopefully I can switch back when we start doing the 16s. I am doubting it though.

(edit, fix spoiler tags)

You mean merge servrs that aren't as badly overpopulated with Empire with ones that are, right? Although apparently a good number of PVP guilds re-rolled from empire to republican because they were tired of Huttball...

IOW even free is too much? Lazy much? You can easily have the authenticator turned off as long as you know the answers to your security questions if it doesn't "work without problems." And the problem with Togruta is that they don't have a skin mesh so they can't be very flexible about clothing. I guess Lucas never told them what they looked like under the robes so nobody knows what skin color they have since only tatoos are shown. (personally I would just continue the tattoo pattern all the way down, but they didn't do that) The skin mesh on characters tends to include the permanent underwear on SWTOR. (it was often changed by mods in non-online BW games)

I disagree, the majority of the pass-throughs leave so fast they are often replaced before the match starts. the main issue folks are complaining about is one side leaving as soon as its obvious they CANNOT win anymore. People need "wins" to finish their quests and some would rather move on and hope to get a "better" match while the "pre-made" that was stomping them before is still tied down. Me personally I will not stay if I join a match if its well lost before I get there (like 0-4 Hutt) -- I am in enough losing games as it is without starting in the dumpster. I don't leave games that I start however. Many casuals only play enough matches to finish their quests, otherwise they go back to their alts or whatever. Let them get finished and the worst of the leavers will never even start a match. (several chronic leavers from my guild do so because they are ON an alt and just trying to finish their weekly and don't want to spend more time on it than neccessary) Serial AFKers will always be in matches as long as they get a share of the rewards. The fix for THAT is separate.. no contribution/damage/healing? no XP/Val/Cred.

First thing is, if you don't like the balance/guild setup on your server then move. Its not that hard to level other characters. Pick one you haven't already played and get to work. Heck, roll a toon on the OTHER SIDE of the server you are on. Then you can have the uberguild on your side. As far as open world ganking.. it happens a lot on busy servers. I was getting ganked by groups on Alderaan all day last weekend trying to do my questline. It was always by full groups. I would be minding my own business, get stunned at long range and then jumped by a full group. (there are a lot of H4s in that area) that was on my EMPIRE character, which is the overpop side on The Fatman. Another guild that I play with went Republic on a PVE server. I prefer not having to deal with gankers, and all. But after I made 50 there the lack of players made the market and WZs sorta blah. If my PVE server had the population of the PVP server then I would proabably play there more. Find a heavy populated RP or RP-PVP or even a different PVE server and GO there. I also rolled up a rebublic character on The Fatman, and the ganking does go both ways. Tat and Alderaan in particular. I have never seen a H4 group pass up a gank. Ever. (I still almost killed one in return the last time on Alderaan because they were ignoring my DPS pet on the Sorc -- but they realized it and CCed the pet before finishing me off) I was a touch overleveled for the area, which helped a lot. there are always a lot of new folks moving to the more full servers. It sounds like your current server may be underpopulated too.

Except for the fact that many of them are using stolen credit card information to buy game cards and clients? (or using a keygen if they develop one?) Its not like GFs are wanting to pay BW any of their illgotten gains from their own pockets.

No, BW won't merge low pop servers until WELL past the point they should. Mythic took so long to do that with Warhammer they were doing multiple merges into 1. (and I beleive it was already Bioware Mythic by then) There are huge numbers of people on the low servers who have re-rolled characters on a high population server. (and I am one of them) I have a 50 smuggler and 40 trooper that are pretty much unplayed except for mission runs and an occasional op or daily for credits. If they get server merged then I may play them again. My server is technically "healthy" but not so much on the republic side. They need to cap each side separately and they can't do that due to how they set up the login interface. Personally I don't understand why they even allow people to roll characters on both sides of a server anyway.

Not to mention re-rollers and players on multiple servers. (I have characters on 4 servers, though I only play 2 servers regularly) I see 300+ on the Imperial Fleet in the evenings on my Imp server. (heavy pop) And I see 60-80 republic side on my republic server. Last time I was on the starter worlds for my "heavy" pop server it was full of people re-rolling from dead/low pop servers. What BW should do is raise the population cap on servers and start merging low pop servers. If they need to do a server split later then thats fine. They need to condense a bit. Once people start leaving a server that server is dying.. and a lot will just leave the game entirely.

No, they are not wrong on many servers. It takes a certain critical mass to have a healthy marketplace and some servers (and more often the republic side since they are lower population) just have horrible markets. Busy servers, espacially Empire I have no issue selling things. (I was in two guilds in different games that migrated here.. one is on a busy PVP server emp side and the other is a lo pop rebublic side. I can easily sell stuff on the busy servers, but even with huge losses can't sell anything on the slow ones. I just gave up crafting and selling excess mats on that slow server. I really hope they merge the red and blue markets, but I doubt they will. They need server merges too for the low pop servers but likely won't do that either.

I am being realistic... we won't GET range AND unlimited targets AND that it sticks to the target and not the area. I think of it as more of a pick 2, and assume it will get a bit reduced if it goes beyond 4 people. Most of the time I cast it centered on myself anywy, since its horribly expensive and can only cover 4 I want to be one of the 4... In WZs (except voidstar) its rare to have that many folks clustered anyway and usually people move so fast its hit or miss where your TARGET will be when it lands. I can control where *I* am.

I think the issue is that a really "good Scoundrel healer" can just match the average sage. Its when you compare the really "good Sage healers" that the problem resurfaces. I ran into issues when managing my energy balance that tanks get all pissy that I am not keeping them topped off. (this is with 2xSRMP and sometimes Kolto Cloud on them while tanking in Heroics) Basically just using EMPs and UWM in rotation (since I am specced to get an UH every cast of UWM) at the pace needed to offset damage without overhealing. This allows me to add a bit of DPS as well. Had someone I leveled to 50 with start complaining, so I tried doing it "her way" for two days. I then told her to get "Doc" out to pocket-heal her because I wasn't doing it anymore. Found other people to play with. Some people WANT that overhealing or you are a "bad healer." Found better teammates too. ---- All this said I have a 31 healer Sith Sorc as well and its just an amazing healer. Bubbles are just amazingly handy. I would give up stealth in a heartbeat for that ability. If a tank has that bubble pop around them they don't ***** about where their health bar is because they know a followup heal is coming right after it. I think the best balance tool would be to just make SRMP more powerful but not stackable. New casts just reset the timer. Overall it should heal a bit less than the bubble can absorb. (since it could be renewed indefinitely) Kolto Cloud should have the number cap removed but be PBAOE centered on the scoundrel. Differnetiated from Sage by doing less healing, and being essentially a HOT buff if it hits you.

I agree. Lore is a fine excuse but the fact is the underpopulated side on a server (usually Republic) has enough of an issue with pvp/faction imbalances to add the issues of an unhealthy market. The market needs a certain critical mass, in that if what you are looking for usually isn;t available then you quit looking for it at all. So less things sell and for cheaper prices. I have characters on both sides on one server and there are some significant price disparities. it costs more to buy crafting mats and green/blue drops are hard to sell even at a significant discount to base prices. The more populated side has cheaper mats and more people buying goods so in general prices are more in parity and crafting works better by far. (as well as being able to auction random drops instead of vendoring them) I parked a mule at the fleet becuase the travel times were a PITA. I could on NS as well but I really think a merged market would be better for the game overall regardless of the lore. --- As an example City of Heroes/Villians merged their markets a few years ago -- plus their market system is for ALL servers and not just one. So you can always find what you are looking for, and pricing is less in flux.

When you get to the 46+ missions it gets a LOT harder. As in you can barely manage it purple mods. Up to 44 missions its pretty simple as long as you have at least modestly upgraded your ship. Once the opposing ships start having shields the difficulty climbs rapidly. It takes a good burst blasters or 2 missiles to kill one ship. I still haven't been able to finish several missions even with high level upgrades. --- Before that its not very hard. Even with level 2 mods you can do almost all the missions before 46.

You should need both your password and the e-key, its normal for a security key to have a pin of some sort. For mine at work its a 4 digit suffix. Once you set up the key though, you MUST use it. I would suspect you will need to contact EA if you lose it to be deleted off your account. (I use a VPN key that is very similar and if you notice the launcher has both a password AND a key entry field.) --- Now I predict they will restrict each account to one key (so no physical key and then adding a softkey -- the terms are one person per account) Allowing one key to access up to 5 accounts as someone suggests is certainly possible. I ordered one as well, personally I think EA should have included them in all orders and not just the CEs - and possibly sell them at retail. If they are RSA Securekeys in theory you could use any commercial key. I have three of them laying around from different projects -- they never ask for them back since they are so cheap.

Still holding for some on Friday, there were a LOT of preorders after the beta weekend and big stress test. Not quite July numbers, but a lot. August and Sept were pretty flat -- probably as many in last week of July as there were in all of August. November will have a lot. I don't consider myself uneducated, OR a fool. But I won't mind being wrong. (Nov30 for me)

I see the waves are working about like I expected they were going to. My prediction is that everyone that is on EGA will be in by Fraday evening. IMO they want everyone in for the weekend, and thats one reason they moved the start back 2 days. Why do I think this? Their "business office" staffing is focused on a standard workweek. (thats in part why waves are started at start of the business day in Austin.) BW is not going to announce it that way, because they lose flexibility to slow down if need be. The minor issues of "less heat" from the raving masses on the forum isn't going to change much either way -- they are mostly ignoring the furor and staying their course as announced. In a month nobody will remember it, and for all that people are #$%#ing about it being a crappy launch now in a year nobody will care. As long as the servers hold up and there are no snags THAT is what will be remembered. --- I really HAVE enjoyed the qqing and entitlement attitude on the forum. I ordered in late november, so will be in either Friday or Saturday AM at wrose it they have a last day. I just wish this game was a bit more meaty. I am afraid its going to play too much like a Bioware single player game in the end because they aren't encouraging groups enough. Just enough so people group sometimes, but thet means you get together for just that bit of content and then scatter afterwards. It will be interesting to see if my predictions are right. I played the big stress weekend and then the final playtest weekend after that. Had 4 characters in the 15s -- the game IS addictive going through the story once at least... /RWWH