I'd imagine they are way off for a fix... It doesn't even work in PvE half the time, I remain in combat and the mobs whack away at my companion while we are both still in stealth. It's pretty buggy but I don't think I've played an mmo where this mechanic wasn't bugged for a while before getting fixed.

There's lots of helms with that model. Look in the AH. Should be plenty of mod ones around level 40.

Which abilities root you?

It's the "armoring" piece that makes the item level go up. (and also the item's defensive armor value). Enhancements and mods just add stats.

Yes, you are missing the button on the companion's toolbar which tells them to stop fighting and run to you. Robot starts AoE, you bolt out of the way and hit that button. Then hit the button again when you engage.

Use Tumult when Holiday pops. It's good.

Just talking dps.. No theory needed unless the animation is longer than the global cooldown. Which it isn't. Yes, in PvP there are differences with travel time. Shadow is more burst (project - breach will hit at about the same time) but assassin will not have travel time. For sustained dps or in PvE there isn't an issue at all. Both abilities are still instant casts.

I hear Inquisitor is OP'd vs. Inquisitor.

Yes, I had this exact thing after Tat. Did like above. Press escape a few times and try again.

I'm not sure what you mean by 100%? Damage wise.. find weakness just allows Shadow Strike to ignore 50% of someone's armor value. It won't increase the damage by a great deal. Obviously the main benefit of find weakness is the reduced force cost.

There is no way to disable the smart cam. (in every other mmo on Earth you can) Pray for a fix. PvPers notice this right away and it's very annoying to try to target someone behind you while running away from them.

Do you have AA forced on in your graphics crad driver? or have you edited the ini file? That's an issue for some people.

In your later rotation (lvl 25+) it's just used for 2 Projects.

It kind of depends on how much of the content you do. I'm consistently 4-6 levels higher than the quests I'm on.. I've only played a handful of warzones, and done 2 flashpoints. I do however finish every quest, every bonus quest, and every heroic in the zone. So now I just stealth through everything hoping the quest level with catch up with me a bit. But there are just so many quests it's ridiculous. (in a good way) Taris is insane and if you complete everything you will be way above the quest level. I'm on Nar Shaddaa now at level 27 still finishing up the level 22 quests there..

You're fine, there are vendors selling the pre-order crystal after you leave the starting zone.

Pre-ordered In December! I get emails from Origin that just say "lol sucker"

Like your account and forum username? Highly doubtful, unless it's offensive in some way.

Locked in? Punished? Coming from Rift (with 5 specs) it's a welcome change to have characters committed to something and not just firing up the latest FotM spec for every situation.

Something just feels better about being on the underdog. As much as I want to play the "evil" side for a change, I won't play the overpopulated side on a PvP server, ever.