So I've been away from the game for about a year or so and I'm a bit confused on how the game functions now. It seems to me that companions gain no stat bonuses from gear now? I tried to put a focus in Xalek's offhand but that didn't work either. Does any of that matter anymore? Also, I used to run exclusively tank spec due to basically being unkillable and having decent dps to boot when running around soloing, but I'm not sure if that's the case anymore. I used to just run with HK and had no problems taking golds down etc. due to all the perks that assassin tanks got. Now I'm not sure how to spec or if it really even matters. I wouldn't mind staying tank spec, but I just don't want to gimp myself by doing so if the game has changed significantly in that regard. Any advice is appreciated.

On Bastion tonight all 3 were bugged from what I could tell. I selected all 3 and was unable to use the device in the quest log on any of them.

Ok, so I spent most of the last few days getting HK-51 on all of my lvl 50 toons. I found the HK-51 quest to be quite enjoyable and definitely easy enough to bypass the 1million credit cost in order to obtain it on all my toons (even those that I won't even bother using him on). So after I finished my HK-51 quests, I decided to take a shot at the new Section X dailies to see what they were like. My conclusion: the Section X dailies are buggy and the difficulty of them is extremely disproportionate compared to the rewards you receive. Now, let me just say that not all of them are this way, but for most people that don't spend their entire lives doing dailies it seems like a lot of time and effort to spend even for weekly rewards considering how difficult some of the dailies are. Lost Reconnaissance: Whose bright idea was it to make the Wild Beast portion of this so stupidly rare? Ok, so if I kill a group of 4 Tuk'ata I get ONE kill closer to the 18 I need to complete the quest, but if I kill a group of 5 Bogwings I get 5 kills closer? Needless to say Bogwing groups are rare while the place is virtually littered with Tuk'ata and DROID groups that seem to do absolutely nothing (perhaps the droid groups are for the Republic?). Anyway, this needs to be adjusted. Granted it's a heroic 2 mission but who is honestly running more than 1 person regularly for such a simple quest? This is just a time sink as far as I can tell. March of the Dread Guard: Defend the Shipment all over again. Currently this quest seems to be bugged as you are unable to free the Prison Leaders. Targeted Misfire: The drop rate on the Airstrike Codes off of Marksmen is absurdly low. This needs to be adjusted immediately somehow. The amount of Marksmen spawns is already low, though there seems to be no shortage of strong and elite level jedi in the area. On top of this the respawn rates are abysmal. Add to this a low drop rate on the codes and it's a recipe for a ridiculous time sink. Everyone is running around trying to find 1 Marksmen in a group of 6 mobs, and even if you happen to find 3 marksmen in a single group, chances are you're likely to see zero code drops. It reminds me of Deadly Mutations if Deadly Mutations required a drop from the Cthon's. The Aurora Cannon: I have yet to even try Aurora Cannon yet. The consensus seems to be that it requires at least 3 people to do it, if not 4. Therefore I won't be doing this quest until sometime over the weekend. I understand this is a 4man Heroic though so I'll give Bioware the benefit of the doubt on this one for now. Data Raid: A fairly easy mission, though the amount of strongs and elites seem fairly high considering the rewards. I have no major complaints about this mission, it seems balanced enough, though it should be on the more difficult end of the spectrum for a DAILY. Hyperbiology: No problems here, I think this is a well balanced quest, maybe even too easy, but maybe I only think that after I've done the rest of the missions. Let me just say that I ran this on my main and these are my initial impressions. My main is a geared Assassin Tank with a decently geared HK-51 companion, which means that things are usually significantly easier for this toon than for other toons that I have at 50. I can run Black Hole dailies (including Torvix) in 20min solo. I haven't even finished all of the dailies on Section X and it's been over an hour...yet for some reason both of these daily sections give the same amount of Black Hole Commendations. Considering I get 5 Black Hole Comms a day from just doing Flashpoints what incentive do I have to ever come back here for a WEEKLY?

Don't do ranked and just grab Battlemaster relics instead.

You people are crazy. The correct answer is Darkness.

I've done this before with several characters. Hell, I've rerolled before based upon the fact that I didn't like some of the choices I made. With my main (assassin) I still kick myself over choosing the dark side option on Alderaan instead of the politically safe option.

Now that transfers have gone through I find that there's enough people with the gear to actually do Lost Island. I enjoy the challenge of this Flashpoint, but I'll agree with the idea that the rewards need to be better balanced. If I'm using group finder for Lost Island it needs to run a gear check. We got thrown into an instance with a healer in full Centurion gear...it's not enough when you notice that even full Rakata geared healers will struggle if the rest of the group isn't entirely geared out and on the ball. I will wipe at least two or three times on average. Once or twice on the first boss, then once on the second boss if people don't know it, or once or twice on trash. If I'm running with guild members we don't have issues, but I honestly enjoy pugging things. For this kind of headache the instance should drop more Rakata gear and give absolutely no Tionese commendations. To be honest, even dropping Columi commendations seems relatively pointless to people that have already geared out all of their comps with full Columi.

What do you mean? The Legacy system has always been in the game since it launched. The only thing they have done is added rewards to it. Originally it was just a secondary leveling system that provided you with a surname and no rewards, but you were still able to earn experience with it.

Exactly. Put a million subs on 20 different servers and people will complain it's too crowded and that the game is doing excellent and then put a million subs on 200 different servers and you'll hear people talking about how the game is dying because there's only 20 people in the fleet on THEIR server. The total number of subs doesn't change, but your perception does.

If you knew "enough" about business then you wouldn't be claiming that peak subscriptions have been reached after only 6 months. The game is new. It took years for WoW to get where it's at now and there are still markets that SWTOR hasn't penetrated yet (China, for example). Servers look dead but it's only because there were so many to begin with. The initial server push had something like 140 servers. That's insane, especially for a new MMO. Right now they're running at around 215, which is WAY too many. WoW only has about 500, but most of those are dead servers and they actually have the population to support that many. That is an extremely small minority of people. Out of all the people playing how many of them only play because it's Star Wars and not because of any other reason. And out of those how many will play even if the game isn't fun? You're trying to wave away 1.5 million subscriptions by saying that "oh, there's always these people that will stay just because it's Star Wars." That's crap. People play because the game is fun. If it's not fun for you, fine, don't play. If it is fun for you, then why are you complaining on the forums? Are you frightened that other people don't think it's fun? That 1.5 million subscribers are just a bunch of idiots that wouldn't know fun if they got run over by it? Even people playing Galaxies didn't think that way...most of those people enjoyed Galaxies because it was Star Wars but also because that sort of sandbox style MMO wasn't really available elsewhere. No one ever said that it's in perfect shape or that it's completely ideal. That's not the point. The point is there's a big difference between "needs improvement" and "this game needs to be saved from its certain demise." Further, there isn't any indication that Bioware is not going to make future changes or that they won't implement stuff the community wants or that they are suddenly going to have a massive drop in developers because they aren't making enough money. SWTOR had 1 million subscribers on DAY 1. WoW wished it could have had those numbers in its wildest dreams.

I dislike them as well, and doubly so because they are the only real "status" colors for lightsabers that currently exist. I'm using black-orange now which looks suspiciously like black-yellow. If having a black-orange wasn't a sort of status symbol then I wouldn't be using it, I'd be using red as a good sith should (or white because I spent a lot of cash on it).

You chose to remain on your server instead of transferring? Or there aren't transfers for your server yet? Because my server has about 750 people on the fleet now.

This isn't Guild Wars 2. Level 15 is not max level here. The idea that a free trial to level 15 is somehow making this game a "free-to-play" is retarded.

You seem to know very little or nothing at all about business. At 6 months it's far too early to tell even if subscriptions dropped in every single month since then. It's far too early to tell whether this is the peak of this product or not, because there are still plenty of ways that Bioware can turn that around. On top of that, as was mentioned earlier, the game was never expected to have so many subscribers in the first place. The game is still exceeding expectations that the developers had. Plus the numbers are far higher than every other game out there except for WoW and Aion (based upon the latest numbers that I checked). Bioware can still turn subscriptions around as well, and their free-to-play to level 15 is a step in that direction. There were a lot of people that I know that didn't buy the game because they couldn't try it first; now Bioware is giving them that chance. Will all of them stick around? No, but depending on who tries and who stays the subscriptions can come back up. Also, content can boost subscriptions as well, and we keep seeing more of it. The idea that this game is suffering, dying, or needs to be saved is stupid. Stop perpetuating this myth.

Haters gon' hate.

Ya, but the game isn't a big steaming pile of poo. It's actually quite good and 1.3 isn't going to make it super better and increase subscriptions by 1000%, so get that idea out of your head now. This game already has a lot of players. and the people that left the game aren't likely to come back to it at this point. It's a bit early to know whether or not this particular product has reached its peak, but it seems unlikely. The game is still relatively new and they are still working issues out. Yet the game still has more subscribers than most MMOs ever had anyway. Most MMOs never even broke 1 million players, yet SWTOR has at least that if not more. A lot of content is already planned out for SWTOR and the voice acting is done at the very least. We will continue to see new content roll out because most of it is already paid for. Except they didn't do any "merging." Those servers still exist and there are no plans from Bioware or EA to shut them down or even merge them entirely at any point in the future. It's a nitpick, but the idea that they're merging servers to cut costs is absurd. The ONLY reason they have done the transfers is because players have been clamoring for them for months and the longer they spent not addressing the issue the less people wanted to play because no one wants to play on dead servers. Essentially the problem was "too many servers" not "omg game is going to die, WE NEED TO SAVE IT!" Eh, not really. As far as MMOs go, SWTOR is still one of the most subscribed to MMO in existence. The only games that beat it right now are WoW, possibly Aion (but they've been on a steady decline since 2009) and MAYBE Lineage I & II. All this doomsaying is complete garbage and doesn't actually take into consideration that this is still one of the most popular MMOs of all time. Ok, so it's not competing with WoW, but WoW's a juggernaut that NO ONE is competing with. On top of this, the idea that content will suddenly vanish and won't be released is absurd. Plenty of games are free to play yet they still release regular content. Plenty of other games have extremely low populations in comparison to SWTOR yet they produce content at similar rates. Everquest is old and crusty and only has about 100k subscribers and just recently went free to play yet even they can release 2 expansions a year. There is no danger of SWTOR suddenly stopping the release of content. The idea that the game needs that is silly though. When subscriptions drop below 500k come back and talk. Until then SWTOR is doing just fine, except for the fiasco of making way too many servers at the start.

Yes, I already said that they had too many servers at the start. So what? The point is that there's still people playing. Transfers have placed those people together where they would rather be. If they shut down dead servers, so what? Get everyone still playing on the same servers and maintain those. There are still plenty of people that are perfectly willing to pay their subscription to play this game. Transfers have only made this better for those people. The idea that the game needs to be miraculously "saved" by something is silly. People said the same thing about 1.2, that the game needed to be "saved," yet here we are, still playing. Yes, there's not as many subscribers as Bioware would have liked, but personally I like the way this is better. It's like playing a game like DAOC or Everquest where you know you're playing a game with dedicated players.

This assumes that SWTOR needs saving. Certainly it's not the powerhouse title that many thought it would be, but now that transfers have gone live we're experiencing a new revitalization. Hopefully this continues. There were simply too many servers at launch. Those of us still playing still enjoy the game though, so it's not as if the populations are filled with people one inch from quitting no matter how much the forums may sound like that. Many of us that are still playing found extremely tight groups on our own servers, people that were in this game to stay and wouldn't be leaving even when the fleet never broke 30 people. So now many of us have transferred and our fleet now needs multiple instances because there's 600 folks in the fleet at the same time. We can pug stuff and enjoy the game again (with the side effect of being a little bit more laggy), and on top of that we came here with friends we know won't be leaving any time soon. This game doesn't need to be saved, it's simply a niche market. If you don't like it then go play Diablo 3 or WoW or get in on that GW2 beta weekend and stop posting here.

The issue here is that the Jedi Order seems to have too much freedom and autonomy. Why? They are mostly responsible (indirectly because of the Sith) for many of the major conflicts throughout the galaxy (notable exceptions being the Yuuzhan Vong War and the Killik Expansion). The point I am making here is that the Jedi have no checks to their own power or authority; they "serve" the Republic (or the GA) as they see fit and at times there is conflict even within the order as to what should be done to serve properly. During the Mandalorian Wars the Jedi Council largely ignored the crisis and wanted to let things play out instead of helping, though Revan, Malak, and Meetra Surik, along with others, were able to stop the invasion and beat the Mandalorians (without approval of the Jedi Council though). So, the Jedi Order is not actually a resource for the Republic or the GA to call upon, they stand apart, even though they are indirectly responsible for the deaths of billions because of so many Jedi falling to the Dark Side. The point of culling force users is meant to remove them as a threat to the galaxy once and for all. Now this might have serious problems. I doubt that the Yuuzhan Vong would have been able to be defeated without the Jedi, so perhaps other methods should be taken to keep the Jedi in check. Thoughts?

Some of the most destructive Sith in the galaxy were originally Jedi prior to their fall. Ajunta Pall - Rose to become a Jedi Master before his fall, founded the Sith Empire Freedon Nadd - Originally aspired to become the greatest Jedi ever, eventually abandoned the dream to attempt to become the greatest Sith sorcerer ever, rose to become the Dark Lord of the Sith, lead to war eventually corrupted Exar Kun Exar Kun - A Jedi Padawan that was corrupted by Freedon Nadd, started a war against the Jedi Order & the Old Republic Ulic Qel-Droma - A Jedi Knight, eventually joined forces with Exar Kun after his fall to the dark side Revan - Originally a Jedi Knight, led the Republic during the Mandalorian Wars and was eventually turned to the dark side by Vitiate, launched a war against the Old Republic. Eventually redeemed himself. Malak - Companion and second in command to Revan, struck Revan down and rose to become Dark Lord of the Sith himself, continued the war against the Old Republic that Revan began, but was eventually killed by a redeemed Revan. Traya - Originally a Jedi Master, she was exiled due to her role in training Revan, she trained Darth Sion and Nihulus in the dark side ways until she was betrayed by them when Nihilus declared himself Dark Lord of the Sith Deslous - Originally a Jedi, led a campaign against the Jedi Ruin - Another Jedi Master, fell to the darkside Skere Kaan - Another Jedi Master, fell to the darkside, destroyed the Jedi Army of Light with a thought bomb Tyranus - Count Dooku, probably needs no explanation Vader - No explanation required Kyp Durron - A Jedi master that became corrupted by the spirit of Exar Kun, eventually became responsible for the death of millions Caedus - Jacen Solo, fell to the darkside through the influence of Lumiya, had a long fall to the dark side, but eventually killed Mara Jade Skywalker and was arguably a major source of the cause of the Second Galactic Civil War Krayt - Originally a Jedi Master in the New Republic, he fell during his captivity with the Yuuzhan Vong, he rebuilt the Sith Order, began a new war, and brought about the destruction of the New Jedi Order While those that were originally Jedi make up less than half of the list of Dark Lords of the Sith, those that happened to be Jedi and fell contributed to most of the strife and death throughout the galaxy. Given that the role of the Jedi Order is relatively benign in comparison as a balancing force, should the Jedi even be allowed to exist, given the propensity for death and destruction that can be caused by those that fall?

No one knows anything about this?

Prior to 1.2 certain Tech and Force User Matrix Cubes were not giving the proper stats, or at least they weren't giving the stats that it was assumed they were supposed to give. For example, 3 blues shards were giving force users an Aim based matrix cube and I think it was 3 green shards that was giving tech users a Strength based matrix cube. Was this intentional because there has been some speculation that they were actually bugged and I was wondering if anyone checked on this since 1.2 or not. Personally I've been hoping for a Willpower based tanking cube for my assassin, but for now I'm just using the DPS one. I'm unsure why Strength users should get a tanking cube while Willpower users are out of luck.

Time to start stacking Endurance!

Indeed. Subtlety is something you certainly seem to have in spades. Never have so many words said so little. All of this is essentially to say "I have no argument to make, so instead I'll bust balls about your screen name." Seriously, who busts balls about screen names aside from children? If you want your posts to be taken seriously I'd suggest a more substantive argument than "your screen name is dumb." In any case the point I was making was that, if taken to the logical extremes, what is out end result? This is why the language that I used was "black and white" as you call it because there are only two choices here: in-game meters, or no in-game meters. The issue is whether or not elitism will exist with them, but the point is that it already exists without them. Taken to it logical end the no-meters argument can create a culture of elitism just as easily as having meters. As others have said, the heightened elitism in WOW came from other implements such as gear-score and cross-server pugging. If we view a culture in which elitism is based upon ignorance such as arbitrary gear values then it diminishes the community more than having the elitism based upon factual data. The subtlety of this point seems to have been lost on you though, not surprising given your screen name (durrrrrrr). Edit: Do you not find it the least bit ironic that by making judgments about someone based upon their screen name is the exact kind of elitism you claim to be against in-game?

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