I'm not dreading anything since I found out my first love (City of Heroes) is back and even has some new toys that were only on the test server that I never got to play with on live. I'll play the story on my Pub and Imp mains once the major stability patches are in place in a week or two, but after that I may even let my subscription lapse for the first time since this game launched. The only reason this game ever became my mainstay was because CoH went away. The fact that that a game that hasn't been updated in seven years has me so excited that I haven't logged into this game for two weeks and probably won't for a couple more and am not even missing it should tell you everything you need to know about how much I'm looking forward to this expansion.

No. I was too busy playing a truly great game, City of Heroes, back then. This only became my top choice when that got shut down by corporate politics. Funny thing... I’m now playing City of Heroes again and I am utterly blown away at how a game that hasn’t been supported in seven years still plays better than a currently supported EA game. I still enjoy the voice acting here, but this just became my backup MMO again.

I’m in the same general group of “prefers solo” does a bit of PvP or flashpoints if I feel like it. I’ve been a continuous subscriber since launch and have played a grand total of two ops in that time. I’m an introvert and have nerve damage in one of my hands that makes playing even SM ops difficult. Solo lets me break when I need to without putting anyone else out. Pre-Ossus 5.0 was the first time I’ve ever managed anything close to BiS on even one character as a result. If “group only” is going to be “the one true way” going forward I think it might be time to put my money elsewhere. I’ve been holding off on going to try out my first love (i.e. the rogue Homecoming servers for City of Heroes) because of the prospect of the whole thing getting shut back down again, but if there’s nothing worth doing solo here anyway, I’ll gladly put the money I’m paying here every month for trying to keep that running instead.

I never have a huge amount of credits at any one time because I’m always spending them, but the fastest way to earn them pre-70 is play a stealth class and run heroics. A lot of them can be completed in a minute or less if you don’t have to fight trash mobs (having the rocket boost legacy item also speeds up reaching your goals). Once you hit 70, particularly with the new expansion coming out, the weekly missions for the daily areas (Black Hole, Section-X, etc.) award insane amounts of CXP. With a CXP booster running I can clear Yavin 4, Black Hole, Section-X, Oricon, CZ-198 and Ziost in under two hours... netting from a dozen to nearly forty command crates depending on my current command rank. Just vender trash everything you get instead of breaking it down for more CXP and you’ll start building a chunk of credits quick. Another VERY important aspect of building credit reserves like the OP is talking about is your legacy bank. A couple hours for those weeklies on a fresh 70 with a single digit command rank will earn you far more command crates than the command rank 300 character will, but once the gear is sold the credits can be spent by any of your characters. Likewise, if you periodically drop any credits you earn on a character above about 100k (more than enough to cover any repairs even if you wipe a few times) into your legacy bank you’ll be less tempted to spend them on the fly and start to see just how much you’re really making across all your characters. I just take 30 seconds at the end of my play session to drop whatever I get just from running whatever I’m currently running and its often a million or more. Give it four months without spending on GTN stuff and I’d be at 100 million easy. But the lure of new outfits and black/black dye packs is strong... which is why I don’t actually have more than about 15-20 million in my legacy bank at any one time.

To be fair; if we had more interesting utilities we wouldn't NEED all the tactical items and variant set bonuses.

The only way a new class would be remotely financially viable is if it’s built as a new advanced class so it can use all of the existing voice assets and class missions of an existing class. A stealth-based trooper/hunter with three damage disciplines. A knight/warrior class with a double-bladed lightsaber and a heal discipline. A consular/inquistor that uses two-lightsabers and has a 50/50 split on Force/Lightsaber attacks (with disciplines favoring one, the other or keeping a balance). A smuggler/agent whose primary weapon is a melee one (blaster offhand for ranged attacks) and has a tank spec. If you wanted to be even less expensive but still provide a different experience; how about just using the existing classes but let the Force-users pick either Force storyline (with matching voice actor) and the non-Force-users pick either non-Force storyline. Just so you experience those stories with different mechanics behind the characters (ex. being a stealthy grenade and scattergun wielding trooper or a long range Force-user going against Darth Angral or an Imperial Agent who uses rocket packs, flame throwers and other “Q-Division” gadgets on their missions).

If you start Ossus without doing Fallen Empire, et al, the game will simply make default choices based on your faction and you’ll get all the comps gained from Fallen Empire/Eternal Throne and lose your main story ones until you’d either... A) get them back in the story (T7, Kalyio, Jorgan, etc) B) do the alliance alert for them (the only ones still missing are Kira and Scourge for the Knight and Tharan and Zenith for the Consular. C) use the terminal in the Odessan base to get them back (note that these are the originals whose mouths still move when they speak and make comments when you enter certain vanilla areas). Generally speaking, if you’re a Pub PC it will use the Lightside choices when they come up (stopping the reactor explosion in chapter three, not letting Kalyio’s bombs go off in chapter 10... so you still have Koth as a companion... you’ll also save Vette over Torian) and the Imp PCs will default to darkside choices (let the reactor explode, generally use the kill option so you’ll not have Koth, Senya or Arcann... and unless you’re a Sith Warrior you’ll save Torian over Vette). In other words it depends a LOT on your class.

Also, many people (myself included) are running Sith (though I haven’t considered my character Sith since the start of Fallen Empire and currently play like a Jedi who can throw lightning and has a more interesting voice actress) who is currently working with the Republic against the Sith Empire (and if I ever have to rejoin the Sith Empire for real because they can’t make faction swapping work I’ll just stop playing them). I know others who are Troopers or Jedi who have decided to work for the Sith Empire so it goes both ways. I can agree Pub vs. Empire is what they’re trying to get back to, but the actual PCs in this are technically still Commander of the Alliance and allied with one of the factions that may not be the one they started in and which employs ex-members of both factions (particularly post-Ossus, anyone still there WANTS to be there and not wjere they were). So why not allow “Alliance” guilds that can have members from both factions? That also fits the current lore.

Exactly my thinking. The big debate is really New Advanced Classes or New Disciplines. New Disciplines is arguably less resource intensive 8 advanced classes (and mirrors) x 1 discipline is 8 disciplines needing to be created vs. New classes 4 base classes (and mirrors) x 3 disciplines each is 12 disciplines and base mechanics... so probably twice as much work when you consider base mechanics. BUT... a new advanced class allows for a lot more flexibility of design than just another discipline. You can change the weapons the class uses (a bounty hunter assassin getting rifles/sniper rifles instead of 1-2 pistols) and employ different core mechanics (ex. stealth field generators) instead of having to squeeze every skill for the concept into just the four skills you get from your discipline. I also think there'd be some issues in terms of adding a new spec type... what does a scoundrel tank spec look like with the pistol/scattergun, stealth generator and upper hand mechanic look like? One of its discipline skills would have to be a gap closer and two others would need to be the taunts since they're not native to the scoundrel chassis. You'd also have to deal with the limited heals the Scoundrel gets that no tank spec has available. That's why, despite the volume of work needed, I think it'd actually be easier to create and balance out new advanced classes than new specs giving roles a class has never had before. A new class lets you build in all the tools a typical class with a given set of three specs would have using the numbers and general traits common to the existing tank, heal, burst and dot specs.

The ONLY way a new class could possibly work is if it was a third advanced class for an existing one. That way they could reuse all the existing story content and just develop the mechanics. To make it manageable, just do one advanced class and mirror at a time. You don't actually need all four at once, you just need both factions to have the additional option. My thoughts would be base the classes off a niche that isn't already there. So, for examples... 1) Trooper (Ranger) / Bounty Hunter (Assassin): a class with three damage disciplines, a stealth generator and an HK-style assassinate talent. The weapon for both is a sniper rifle with an offhand vibroblade for in close attacks. 2) Jedi Knight (Warden) / Sith Warrior (Conqueror): a class with a heal spec in the form of instilling their allies with the Force as you lead them in battle. Your weapon would be the double-bladed lightsaber. 3) Jedi Consular (TBD) / Sith Inquistor (TBD): another all damage class focused on being a true gish (i.e. basically a 10m damage class that uses a mix of saber and force attacks... kinda like the shadow/assassin's tank spec, but single target damage focused. Their weapons would be two lightsabers. 4) Smuggler (Bruiser) / Agent (Extractor): A class with a tank spec and a focus on melee attacks and using dirty tricks to keep the focus on them in a fight. Their primary weapons would be vibroswords/staves with an "offhand" blaster/rifle they use for some 10m attacks (and cut scenes). But that's just off the top of my head.

Regarding the planet size... if you actually play the vanilla 1-50 content with exploration quests enabled you'll discover that EVERY part of the worlds Tython, Ord Mantel Korriban, Hutta, Coruscant, Dromand Kaas, Taris, Balmorra, Nar Shadda, Tatooine, Alderaan, Quesh, Hoth, Belsavis, Voss and Corellia has a mission associated with it. It might be a mission for a different class or faction or an exploration or bonus mission; but every terrain feature and which type of mobs spawn there has a mission-related reason to be there (or at least it did at launch). As for too many abilities; I wouldn't mind a little bit of consolidation on a couple of the classes, but its not a deal breaker for me. Gunslingers/Snipers have just a few too many "I shoot you with a slightly different animation" abilities forming a long rotation for my tastes; I could stand to reduce the number by one, maybe two, but no more than that. Same for knights/warriors; focus particularly has several powers that feel like they're almost a reskin of another power in your rotation; i.e. the two 10m force blasts, a second leap attack, multiple "I hit it with my sword in melee for X damage and Y focus"); combining two of those into a single power wouldn't be horrible.

How about before allowing us to switch ships, instead they changed the ship interiors to have decoration hooks that unlocks when you get your ship back after Chapter Nine of Fallen Empire (so it doesn't interfere with class stories). This would also let you place any companions, new or old, aboard the ship and set the locations for your utility items. Then throw in the stronghold ability to return to the location on the planet you just left so you can use the ship as it was originally intended; a mobile base/home away from home where you could access, storage, mail, GTN, crafting table, etc. Maybe you could even make the space rail-shooter mini-game relevant again by creating a space-comms vendor decoration (space comms and the ship upgrades) and adding some ship-themed decorations to it as well.

I'd be down for it if the requirements for losing the name were "Has neither logged into the account nor subscribed at any point since the server merge." My reasoning for that date is simple. That was the last point when someone could have lost a name to the simple bad luck of someone else also having the name and been more active with their character than you were with yours (I understand the system used to determine who lost the name was based on not just age of the character, but activity on that character). If you haven't logged in or paid in since the merge when you could have lost the character name due to simple inactivity anyway, then you may as well have just lost the name then. That seems reasonable to me.

One big advantage I have with my Light V (Ex) Sith Assassin is they’re a stealth class so I avoid a lot of fights. I also run them in the Force-heavy tank build (I’m just stunning them with my lightning) and switched to a staff instead of my double lightsaber specifically to be able justify in my own head that I’m not causing any lasting injuries on the off chance I take out a non-droid. There also happen to be just enough daily missions that don’t require you to fight living Republic forces to get your weekly in one go. It helps knowing that in the Pub side story they get the farming data offworld and the Jedi and colonists are already leaving the planet. So scan some crops and radar towers (1), destroy some turrets (2) and farm equipment (3) the Republic left behind (the better to keep the Empire from studying it). Kill two powerful Geonosian mutants (4) and rescue some Imps under threat from the bugs (5) and recover some data recorders while you’re there (6), reproprogram some glitched excavator droids (7), destroy a pair of malfunctioning heavy droids (8), plant some jammers that won’t do much since the people you’re trying to jam are already leaving (9) and recover some Jedi relics and funnel them back to the Jedi through your Force enclave (10). Bang, you’ve appeared to have done your part, which enhances your cover, while doing virtually no real damage to the Republic in the process and arguably even helped them a bit by destroying tech the Imps may have been able to use to improve their food production and recovering some of Jedi’s artifacts right from under the Imperial’s noses. At least that’s how I justify it. Sorta like I also justify my Scoundrel actually having the lowest actual body count of all my toons because the Scrapper spec can stealth past most stuff and their punches, bludgeon and dirty kick mean I’m mostly knocking them out classic hero style when I do fight and that my shotgun is loaded with rubber pellets. I’d definitely like more overtly pro-Republic saboteur missions in the upcoming expansion though if they’re not delivering on full faction swaps (my preference) or at least an Iokath-style “pick your faction for this planet” approach for the new content.

I'm someone who's got it too and I'm pretty okay with other people getting the content. The galaxy should not be deprived of the over-the-top silly that is ZO-0M and the Exarch's Elevator of Destiny! I'd also be okay with it being a premium CC item since the whole package includes two companions, a fully voiced episode, a new deco... and if you're really getting technical, being subscribed over that whole period also gave you things like the HK-55 Jetpack and themed weapons. In fact, if were to make a general suggestion; that wouldn't be a bad package model for premium bonus content. Package an episode length mission, a companion featured in that mission (either as the main character like the HK chapter or as new companion like we go on Ossus), plus some themed items (decorations, vehicles, armor, etc.) into a single package available to continuous subscribers for free, or can be purchased as a premium item for CC. Heck, throw an episode in with the lower or upper tier DvL rewards (Ranos, leveling armor, speeder... other armor set, other speeder, Hexid) and you'd probably have a second and third package right there (you could have a mission where Ranos or Hexid requests your help). I'd be all over those as a subscriber and I already have the non-mission content (its not like I spend my CCs on much beyond dyes and the occasional outfit unlock these days).

Personally, I thought it worked best with a Light Side Inquisitor. Chapter 12 of FE particularly has a lot of nuance for a former slave who was trained in the Dark Side, but ultimately rejected it. Second best for me would be Light Side Jedi Knight with Consular a solid second. The Imperial Agent and Pub Trooper both get some significant companion reunions along the way which are worth it just for that.

Only if you allow full faction swapping. There’s no way my ex-Sith main would be forced back into the Empire; they can barely stand being just a saboteur; and if they can’t have their Independent nation of exiles, the Republic is a reasonable second choice given the autonomy they give their member worlds. I’d unsub if the only way forward was as a Sith lackey again. If I had full control of my character, I’d have turned on Malgus as soon as we were alone with the Jedi Master and then go back claiming I barely escaped with my life.

As soon as you start Ossus it gives you a box loaded with 232 gear for all 14 slots. On planet general mob drops go up to about 242’s. The daily missions and weekly “complete 10” mission award a decent chunk of CXP and what you’d essentially call a Tier 5 crate (a piece of 252 gear for your class/discipline... if you get dupe you can disintegrate it for 175 UCs towards the get a masterwork crystal; with two crystals needed to buy a piece of 252 gear). And to answer the specific question; you can completely ignore the CXP gear grind while doing so. These days I just distintegrate anything in the command boxes that isn’t a companion gift, reputation item I still need, CXP booster or jawa junk for the UCs (and CXP that puts me closer to another box for more UCs) and trade them in for masterwork crystals to get the 252 gear. If you’re up for it there’s also a weekly “kill the two world bosses” mission that groups recruit for on Ossus every hour or so it seems that gives you another Masterwork crystal. I solo pretty much all of the time, but it’s so easy to get into a group for it and run the daily missions while it’s forming that even I participate in those. There’s also a non-repeatable mission that stacks with the WBs that gives you a guaranteed 252 main hand weapon for your class for defeating them too. Between the 500 UC turn in, two WBs (which takes maybe 15-20 minutes once it starts running) and weekly “complete 10 dailies” mission I’ve averaged about 1.5 pieces a week. The trick I’ve found is to be strategic with your crystal purchases by buying after you get your weekly item and focus on finishing out all the options from a single reward type (upper body, lower body, weapons). That way you can more easily get non-duplicate items from the boxes. For example, the weapon box offers a random main, offhand, head, wrist and earpiece for your discipline as results. So if you get the guaranteed mainhand item from the other mission and then say, get a helmet from the box, focus on buying the offhand and earpiece with crystals the next two weeks and choose the upper body box from the weekly the second week because you’ll have 100% chance of getting gear for a slot you haven’t filled yet from it. Etc. Just keep choosing the reward box with the most item types you still need and buy for the rest and you’ll quickly get the 252 gear. Also note that having an alt of the same or a mirror class and moving the armoring/mods/enhancements into legacy bound gear can let you double up on some of the rewards as well.

Agreed on that being a solid approach. My main suggestion is a way to change up the interior of your Odessan base to match your choices (and for God’s sake fix that blasted broken pipe on the way to the Force Enclave... where in the Seven Corellian Hells are my maintenance staff?). This could be by allowing decoration hooks down there, but I actually think several themes would be a better choice since that way any new cut scenes don’t have to worry about where certain things are positioned. The four main ones I can think of are; - Independent Alliance: This is the Independent Nation option. Design incorporates more of the Zakuulan looking designs and colors we saw the Alliance using in the Iokath missions. Replace the Pub and Imp fighters with the variety you flew into Iokath on, troop uniforms that are clearly a hybrid Pub/Imp design, etc. - Smuggler’s Den: This is for those who don’t want a Nation, but don’t want go all in with either major Faction. Replace both Pubs and Imps with smugglers, mercs and bounty hunters with the Smuggler’s area becoming something like Jabba’s throne room. Admiral Aeyago replaced with a Mercenary officer (because he’s not going to stick around for that) and maybe Sana Rae is replaced by the more morally flexible Isaac (the Force-user who was training Guss in his Alliance Alert). - Republic SpecOps Command: Replace all Imp and Alliance elements (ships/crates/personnel/flags) with Pub elements. The Smuggler’s wing refocused as Base R&R/Commisary more than smuggling operation. Sana Rae and Hylo Viz replaced with a Sixth Line Jedi (because Voss wants to stay neutral) and a Republic Supply Officer (because money is better freelancing). - Imperial Power Base: The inverse of the Pub SpecOps. Pub and Alliance elements replaced with Imp ones. Sana Rae replaced with a Sith Lord, Admiral Aeyago with an Imp Admiral and possibly Hylo Viz as well (I don’t think she’d enjoy Imperial protocols that much). That way it’s not just a line of dialogue indicating your change of focus; but the surroundings in your base as well.

Since I’m pretty sure the Alliance is staying (likely because they’ve not figured out proper faction swapping... which with voice actors instead of text is a LOT harder to do retroactively than in other MMO’s) what I’d like to see is a way to customize your Alliance. For example, my Smuggler has focused mostly on recruiting various underworld type companions and views his Post-Eternal Throne Alliance as his own Exchange-like Organization. He’s not a big fan of the Empire, but he has zero desire to get dragged directly into Republic politics either. His view of Ossus is “so long as the check clears, I’ll go in with my people and fix your problem.” My Trooper by constrast is treating it as a Republic-allied SpecOps Force that is only “independent” for the sake of plausible deniability. His view of Ossus is “time to put an end to the other Empire.” My Main, a Light 5 Inquisitor/Assassin who’s the only one to have actually recruited everyone, views the Alliance as it’s own nation now and sides with the Republic mostly because it’s more likely to respect our sovereignty after the Empire is defeated whereas the Empire would absolutely look to annex the Alliance as soon as the Republic is crushed. Her view of Ossus is “I’ll protect Moff Pyron’s people because he’s an old friend... but I am absolutely going to undermine the Empire everywhere I can so they never get the strength needed to threaten my home.” ***** Anyway, my thinking is that we could get some new missions and perhaps decoration options for our personal phase to reflect our personal tastes/choices. Ex. complete a mission for the Empire (if you chose them) and all the Republic fighters in your base hangar get replaced with Imperial models and all the Republic troops in your personal instance are swapped for Imperial troops. Maybe it’s even something you do multiple times and each time it adds another layer of changes (ships in hangar, genral troops, all the Jedi leave and are replaced with Sith in the Force Enclave, and finally all the flags change to Imperial only). A similar one for the Republic would do the same in reverse. Another mission related to criminal world replaces both sides with smugglers and mercs. Maybe a science-based mission too that turns your Alliance base into a research organization. Then finally an Independent option that sees the abandonment of both Imp and Pub trappings for a distinct Alliance identity (like the definitely Zakuulan white-gold style your forces seem to be using early on with the Iokath missions). So if you do the work for it, your Alliance base turns into an Imperial Stronghold (with “Alliance” merely being shorthand for your power base within the Empire) or a Republic Stronghold, Underworld Trading Hub, Research Corporation (Alliance Industries) or Independent Nation. The basic story remains unchanged... the powers of the Republic or Empire are coming to you for assistance in the war... but the trappings of why you’re involved now reflect your desires (because you’re now the Republic’s SpecOp Command... because your Imperial power base has the needed resources to confront the problem... because they’re hiring you to do a job... because you’re a neutral power they hope to sway to their side).

My hunch is they retool the CXP system to sync with the new level cap. So instead of 230/236/242/248 gear it’ll become 258/262/266/270 gear. Once they got the bugs worked out by having the means to convert unwanted drops into currency to buy things you did want, the CXP system was actually reasonably solid for an endgame gearing system that allows everyone to eventually gain BiS gear by various means. This may involve resetting all Command Ranks back to 0 though (since the new tier-1 drops will actually be better than the current tier-4 drops) and converting ICs to a new currency type to prevent instant BiS gearing (ex. shortly before Ossus came out I used a huge quantity of UCs I had banked to just buy a 248 mainhand for a fresh 70 toon... they really don’t want people to snag the new BiS gear on the first hour of the expansion simply by having a bunch of resources banked from old content), but that’s been the case with pretty much every level-cap increase so no reason to think it’d be any different this time. My expectation is that they’ll keep the basic command tokens as is so people can easily buy in on the new tier-1 gear and then have a new currency in place of UCs that drops from disintegrating the command crate drop items so you can buy up the higher tier items you don’t get as drops.

One thing I would like to see would be a way to use the tank and heal specs more effectively in solo play. Its a pain in the tookus to have to switch specs and gear just because you've decided to spend the day running heroics and dailies (or running other story missions)... and soloing them in tank spec not only takes longer, but you rack up bigger repair bills (because you're drawing more aggro and the fights are longer). Since there's nothing wrong with the tank spec rotations (I actually prefer them to dps rotations on Vanguard/Powertech and Shadow/Assassin), I'd like to see some type of module that, when equipped, cancels out the typical tank mods (+armor, +threat, +accuracy, -damage) and gear stats (using a shield instead of a focus/generator; items with defense, shield, absorb instead of power, accuracy and critical) so you can use them like a DPS class without having to change your spec and gear, just by unequipping your tactical item (I say unequipping because that way its not something you can do in the middle of a fight, you have to exit combat to make the change... more flexibility in general, but not within any single fight).

How about a tactical item that lets tank and heal specs work like DPS for solo content without needing to respec to do it. Ex. Drop tank armor/defense/shield/absorb back down to DPS levels, but give us damage and crit to match dps levels. Give it some limitation so you can’t switch between tank and dps in combat (or even something like a 15 minute cooldown after it is de-toggled), but it would be fantastic if I didn’t have to keep rswapping out my spec and gear just to not solo at a glacial pace with my tanks. For heal specs, how about a similar toggle that that turned you heal spec skills (not the basics that even the dps specs get) into enemy targeting toxic attacks to do the same. Kinetic Combat and Darkness tank specs are two of my favorite to actually play (they feel like a proper “gish” with a mix of weapon and Force attacks... vs. the dps specs which are almost entirely weapon focused), but they do notably lag behind the dps specs and have larger repair bills to boot when all you’re looking to do is grind credits or cxp on planetary heroics or dailies on Ossus (since your comp isn’t sucking up some of the damage and you’re taking longer to drop each target). Tactical modules feel like an opportune way to address this because the differences are more the stance and gear stats than anything innate to the specs’ skills.

I’d be okay with new abilities, but agree about the idea they should be replacements rather than new ones. Honestly, with the level bump they’re going to reshuffle everything anyway so your capstone will come at 75 instead of 70... which probably means getting things at odd levels instead of evens. So they’ll probably bump the levels you gain things for your spec tree by 1 (i.e. 11, 13, 15 instead of 10, 12, 14) and move the final utility choice to 75. Which probably means two new passives (71 and 73). Maybe they’ll surprise us though and leave the utility where it’s at (or rather at 71) and give us a new passive at 73 and a capstone skill (that replaces something else) at 75. A lot I think will depend on this new tactical item they’re mentioning that they say will be style defining. I’m skeptical it will make that big a difference unless they do something like offload the “role” (i.e. tank, heal, dps) to the tactical item, but another option might be offload some of the skills to it instead. By that I mean drop a bunch of the skills from the class and then offer something like... - Story Tactical Module: merge all similar powers with reduced cooldowns (ex. Instead of darkness tank’s discharge and wither as two aoe’s with 10 sec cool downs... make it one skill with a 6 sec cooldown) and provide defensive cooldowns and attack boosters that automatically trigger at certain health or energy levels the way the temp powers did in FE chap. 12. Provides baseline competency (good enough for story mode ops at appropriate gear rating). - Veteran Tactical Module: Commonly used skills (attacks and DCDs) are used actively, rare skills are automated as with basic level. If active attacks and DCDs are used properly you’ll do better than baseline, but more poorly if you’re not using at the right times (can do Vet mode ops of the appropriate gear rating if using the available skills correctly). - Master Tactical Module: All skills are activated by the player only. If used properly will be well above the baseline, but will fall way behind if you’re not making full use of all the abilities available (you’ll need to use all the skills correctly at the appropriate gear rating to beat Master mode ops).

Not really. Despite the pretty animations, the baselines for the class roles have gotten quite homogeneous (remember when there was a meaningful difference between a ranged and a melee tank?). Some of their side abilities are different, but if you’ve taken a tank spec “here’s your guard, here’s your ST taunt, here’s your AoE taunt, here’s your pull, here’s your gap closer, here’s your close AoE with high threat... here’s your +60% armor, +10% accuracy, -10% damage stance/cell.” The same can be said of the other main spec types; DoT, Burst and Heals. There’s enough skills which at a mechanical level are basically the same thing with a different name/FX you could probably already build a universal set bonus for the particular spec type (ie. use X power for 2% bonus to damage for 15 secs, triggered every 30 secs.”... every use of Y power reduces the cooldown of Z power by A seconds.”) Given the way they seem hellbent on enforcing certain gear values (see the enhancements in the 252/258 gear and their efforts to make it ever more difficult to gear a tank spec for solo play) I wouldn’t be surprised if a new gearing system doesn’t just do away with defense/shield/absorb as distinct stats and just have power/accuracy/crit automatically turn into defense/shield/absorb when you choose a tank spec; because god forbid you be able to practice your tanking rotations while doing solo content at less than a glacial pace outside of a genuine group. Honestly, what I’d love out of tactical gear would be the ability to adjust your “spec” but not your spec skills. Let a darkness/kinetic combat spec with its true mix of Force and lightsaber attacks be a DPS spec with the right tactical module... or a heal spec by changing its depredating bolts into a friendly “charge up” and wither into an AoE heal with a different module. Let infiltration’s heavy melee focus and building stacks work like a tank spec if it has one module. Let the DoTs play a tank (DoT+high threat = aggro target) or a DoT-focused healer. Let the heal trees work like a tank with a tactical module that turns its heal skills into strong self-heals and taunts or into DPS by changing them from heals to toxic compounds that target enemies. That would be a real “play your way” I could get behind.