I'm dual spec'd Heal/DPS I ask the group which role they want me to play. It works out pretty well....if i am playing full time healer and constant healing isnt required I pitch in with some damage. But if I am asked to play full time healer I make that my priority.....I do not just heal whenever I feel like it as I am aware that failing my job as a healer will incur the wrath of my peers no matter how much dmg I pitched in. I didnt dual spec out of laziness but the desire to create a stronger character those last few skill blocks at the top of the tree seem negligible to me....the cumulative effects of skills across different trees that buff the same attributes seemed more valuable to me. Plus dual spec'ing is more fun

Agree with the OP....i hate this change.

I don't have force push. I would cc one of them but for some reason he would keep getting free even tho I turned off all AOE attacks for the companion. The way I dealt with that spot went like this: I put companion on passive mode so he doesnt fight, then i shield him, get the attn of the sith and get them to chase me so i can get them out of that tight corner. Then tell companion to fight, then CC, and by that time Qyzen was half dead so straight into healing mode. Once I got them out of the corner, the CC finally stayed in the air where he belonged until the other 2 sith were dead

Morfedd - I appreciate that you took the time to type all that out, but none of it addresses the scenario I posed: several clusters of 3 "strong" sith together. I have finished Quesh and its bonus series and moved on to Hoth. As it turns out I never really had a problem anywhere on Quesh except Attis station, which was the class quest. bossei - I agree, i have not ecountered anything on Hoth that comes even close to the difficulty of Attis station. And like you I am not complaining, I enjoyed the challenge and with the enemies on that station being all sith it should have been so. But like you I did die a lot and it did get me worried...i was afraid the rest of the game would be like that. I have solo'd Heroic2 missions with greater ease than Attis.....and I think its a key point that all the enemies on Attis station were 3-4 levels below me. There is simply no chance I would have gotten past it alone if I were 2 levels lower

Envenra I also do all the same things you mentioned. I do on occasion forget to turn of Q's AOE attacks when I want CC but you can believe after dying a few times at the same spot I do suddenly remember. Anyhow its nice to hear other perspectives, thank you

HumanShield - I actually do make use of all the techniques you mentioned with the only possible exception: I dont know what aggro means. I was eventually able to clear it but only by using a high level stim to boost my presence (increases companion effectiveness) and I've never had to use a stim before. As a sentient you wear armor and could probably tank if you wanted to. A sage has no armor and relies on a tank and the problem has been that my tank couldnt survive 3 strong sith at once even with me acting as a full time healer. But if I split the enemies and pull one of the sith toward myself I cant heal the tank and myself and fight my enemy all at the same time, and we both end up dying. I think you would have less of a problem with this scenario since u can wear armor. I don't think I'm an expert player but I also think if my play style were that bad then i would have run into this problem a lot sooner thank level 40. Pattypuppet - where do you find orange gear? And by hilt you mean the hilt of the lightsaber? bliapis - I notice none of you mentioned whether you split your skill points 50/50 between two different trees?? I am starting to suspect this might be the problem but so far i dont have anyone to confirm or deny because it doesnt look like anyone else has done this

I'm sure gear isnt the issue bcuz I just started this planet and I have the highest gear I could find on Balmorra. Even the heroic missions there couldnt give me better gear. I am guessing you did not split your skill points between 2 different trees?

I'm a lvl 40 consular, reached planet Quesh and suddenly there are normal (not heroic) missions that I simply cannot solo anymore. I have solo'd all the way up until now. The disturbing thing is the enemies of Quesh are like level 36 and I'm 4 levels ahead of them but some missions like Attis Station have 3 "strong" sith bunched together or 1 elite sith and 1 strong sith and even if I cc one of them I cannot pull it off: the elite will kill my companion faster than I can heal him and with 3 strong I lift one and the other two split up and go after us one on one. I'm wondering if the game was designed to force you to cooperate in a group on higher level planets or if I caused this problem myself by splitting my skill points between healing and DPS about 50/50 so I'm not super strong in either category but just medium strength in both, which maybe for this game simply will not work?? Any advice?

Thank you everyone...I feel like i just learned a fundamental piece of the game i should have learned like at level 9....I'm a dunce It sounds like all of you let your companion run on autopilot.....I have seen people talking in forums about how important it is to "control your companion". Do any of you do that? I think it would be impossible to be effective while trying to manually manage the companion's buttons during a fight along with my own and still pull it all off without any pauses/breaks in between spellls....and such pauses only cause the fight to last longer which is most often a bad thing. Thoughts?

Oh lemme count the ways! J/K But there really are many reasons, most of them are related. 1) Several times have I gone halfway through a flashpoint only to have the team get squeamish and QUIT halfway through because they died once and they dont like spending money on equipment repairs. (**Whiny voice** "repairs are expensive!") 2) I waste so much time looking for a group instead of playing the game. If I finally find a person willing to group but we still need a 3rd, we might then need to spend another 10 minutes to find a 3rd person, during which time the 1st might get impatient and decide to start a mission while he's "waiting" or simply leave altogether. Then, either I wasted 20 minutes standing around trying to chat with strangers, or else my group gets to stand around and wait for this guy to finish his mission. 3) I often group up with people who are just in a rush to race through it all, which denies me the ability to immerse and fully take in the experience. These people are running to collect everything first, flip every switch first, get the conversation over with, and so on and so forth. They turn what was supposed to be an entertaining story into a chore that isnt much different from doing the dishes. 4) well actually there are more, but I dont wanna turn this into a gigantic lecture. Sorry if I've already done that. I'm a little curious in return: why do you like grouping so much?

Kranz that explains it I guess.....since rejuvenate has 100% chance to grant conveyance, i interpreted that as a passive skill that would be always on as long as you have points in the rejuvinate skill. I will check and see if the activation time does go down after casting rejuvinate. Sorry everyone.. P.S. that may explain why customer support did not even respond to my in-game ticket after 4 days....

Zorpin: yes he has taunt. I've never changed companions, and he has always been able to grab the attn of at least most of the enemies before. If he is now only increasing threat for one enemy....then I don't know what has changed, or how to fix it. Magus_d: yes, i do exactly like you say. It has been my playstyle all along to send him in first and double team the same guy, going through them one at a time. deathdisciple: how do you disable or re-enable the companion's skills? I did not even know this was possible or where to do it.

actually no....i went back and solo'd 3 flashpoints because like the OP i couldnt find a group willing to do them. After each one....my quest/mission reward was +5 xp points. It was actually a bit annoying considering it takes like 40 minutes to complete one

....bump....bcuz i cannot find this thread on the forum

Has anyone else noticed this? I have a consular....and I put points into the skill on the healing path - a skill called "conveyance"....which says that it will reduce the activation time of the healing spell "deliverance" by one full second. I filled the rank out completely. There was NO reduction in the activation time of "deliverance". None at all. I did not make a mistake or overlook anything.....I was careful to note the activation time both immediately before and after selecting the skill point. When no change occurred I logged out and back in....still no change. Has anyone else noticed this?

Since I'm new to MMO's I'm wondering if maybe this is a problem/bug? or is it really just something I'm doing wrong..... I'm level 37 Consular with mixed heal and dps skill points (about 50/50) and ran into something totally new today. If I walk into a group of 5 standard enemies my companion (the lizard dude) will keep one occupied while the other 4 concentrate all their fire on me. Used to be I could take 5 standards equal to my own rank out with great ease, but now I am 3 ranks above my enemy and having to use a medpack every time just to survive a fight with standard enemys. Until now I had never used a medpack before...not even with Boss fights. Now I have a force spell to reduce my threat, and my companion has one to increase his threat, AND I have skill points put into ranks that also reduce my threat while healing or attacking.... and I have force armor, and I use all of these and the enemy is still concentrating all fire on me even though I am at quite a distance away from them....while my companion **which is a TANK** is standing in the center of them all and living on easy street taking absolutely no fire. I noticed this all just started today, after the patch.....and while I hesitate to say the patch caused it, because there are other factors, like that I just started a new planet (Balmorra) yesterday, and I am at higher ranks now.........or maybe its because I am getting into the higher level DPS skill points and I'm causing too much damage.....? Has anyone else notice a problem like this?

I hate grouping. I hate the fact that I have to miss out on Heroic levels because I cant solo them. It sounds like from your post, that I am not alone in this. But you did get me curious about social points. Is there some reason social points are desirable? Some content that I am denied access to because I dont have the social points?

The minor points youre talking about, every last one of them, were direct responses to questions you asked me....questions you posed in the form of arguments which you thought would win your point. Upon reading my rebuttal your argument completely fell apart, and youre now trying to save face by changing the subject and switching gears. I'm not fooled. More importantly, you just contradicted yourself and your earlier arguments. For example in earlier posts you said there were no answers to your plot questions and you specifically said they don’t make any sense....and now that I've provided the answers youre NOW saying "of course anyone can figure out the plot......" No....actually not everyone because you clearly could not - i had to explain it to you. Don't try to steal my argument and then claim it as your own. It has been MY argument all along that the so called plot holes yourself and redletter claim have no answers…..are actually quite easy for anyone to figure out. If its easy for anyone to figure out…..THEN IT ISNT A PLOT HOLE. Here is a sampling of one such post by you: The answers to your questions are what youre now calling belabored details that don’t matter….and stuff which anyone with a brain can figure out. If anyone can figure them out then why did you need to ask the question? And if they dont matter then why did you bring them up? This is the same kind of thing people like you complain about. When they actually do fill in the gaps, its Anakin telling you he will do a neat trick before he does the neat trick. It’s easy to figure out: it doesn’t need to be said. Next you will counter that it isn’t easy to figure out. But too late…you’ve already said that anyone with a brain can figure it out. See why I’m getting more and more convinced youre an idiot? Maybe you haven’t heard: Fellowship of the Ring was torn to shreds in exactly the same manner that star wars PT was. Stupid points like “ If the birds could fly in and rescue Frodo at the end, then why didn’t Frodo just ride on their back all the way to the volcano and drop the ring in? Those idiots could have skipped the whole trip” Oh youre a very slippery worm attempting to take things out of context. Here is the whole line: My response: Despite your claim, you have not pointed out any holes in the film Your slimy response: Since you like obvious plot points to be pointed out for you, I'll happily comply. YOU said you pointed out plot holes. I said no you didnt. You responded that you dont have to point anything out. I never said you had to point anything out - you claimed that you had pointed out plot holes and I denied it. You’re done. You cannot win your argument on merit so you’ve begun to rely on dishonest and slimey tactics. You’ve revealed yourself as: dishonest, dumb, and having lost your argument youre not big enough to own up to it. I will not continue to debate with you and allow you to fool yourself into thinking you’re still in the game when you don’t even have any pieces on the board. You'll get no further acknowledgement from me. Nor any respect. And I'm pretty certain you erased stuff from your previous posts to help support your latest one.

Wow, have you got a lot to learn. I was with you up until you said we are only customers. I dont believe we have the right to tell lucas what to do with his story, but speaking in general terms there IS no producer without the customer. The producer of ANY product has only one simple job - to make what the customer wants. I know it seems like I'm getting rude to you over something small....its because it totally infuriates me the crap companies get away with these days because of ignorant thinking like yours. There was a time the producer always did what the customer wants....and if he didnt then he was out of business simple as that. Then people like you got it into your head that customers dont matter. Since customer strength is in numbers, its people like you that sort of ruin it for everyone else and now we end up getting crappy customer service from just about everyone these days

Actually no, I'm not going to argue with anything you said because I dont disagree with any of it. Lots of the stuff they did was stupid and poorly done including what you pointed out. My argument with redlettermedia is that much of what he says is completely stupid and simply not true. For example he claims one of the biggest plot holes with phantom menace is that the trade federation have no motivation for blockading naboo because they are merchants so they must want to trade. As if an increase in tax revenue isnt reason enough. History is filled with powerful organizations and governments doing exactly that very thing - momentarily impeding the flow of goods in order to increase their trade revenue or tax revenue in the long run. Thats why at the very start of the movie, we are informed that the jedi are going to resolve a "trade dispute". What is a trade dispute? Its when one side wants more money and the other side refuses to pay it. He also claims that naboo has absolutely no reason for freaking out because they can just live off the resources on their planet. He calls this a major plot hole that makes no sense. When in fact its not just a blockade - there is an occupying army invading their planet and there is not a government anywhere in this universe that would just take that lying down. He thinks its totally stupid that the Trade Federation has an army because they are merchants and merchants dont have armies. But the truth is they are a federation of trading and tax collecting planets. A huge organization that would have absolutely no way of enforcing their taxation or protecting their goods without an army. He needs to look up the word *federation* in the dictionary. He says that nobody in the universe has any reason to assasinate senator amidala and that this is a stupid gigantic plot hole. When in fact amidala is the single biggest obstacle to Palpatine's goal of starting a war. She is single handedly spearheading the anti-army creation act. Which is the same as an anti-war act. And this idiot thinks palpatine has no reason to want her dead? I said I also agreed with much of what redlettermedia did say. About half of it in fact. But for the most part the way he shredded those movies can be done to any of your favorite movies in exactly the same manner. Want proof? Take the OT: Why didnt han solo return to pay off jabba the hut as soon as the death star was destroyed? How come 20 seconds after Lando Tells Vader that the carbonite freezing equipment has never been used to store a live creature before....all of the sudden now there is medical equipment built into the carbonite to tell us if Han Solo is still alive? Why is boba fett SHOOTING at luke skywalker in Bespin when Vader just told him 15 seconds earlier that he wants Luke captured ALIVE?? How did vader manage to arrive in Bespin and strike a deal with lando to betray han before Han even arrived there himself? How come after vader interrogated leia with a large needle and torture robot, there was not a mark on her? How come on bespin they put han solo into a torture/interrogation device but never even asked him any questions? The only reason they captured Han at all was to use him as bait to capture luke. So why are they torturing him? How come han solo instantly thawed out from the carbonite? How did he live? He had no access to oxygen in there. Your body is 90% water and water crystalizes when frozen, breaking open every cell in your body Vadar and Palpatine have been growing in strength for decades before luke was even born. Yoda tells luke "only a fully trained jedi will be able to destroy vader and the emporer. How did yoda really think that luke was gonna train for a couple years and then go kill vader and the emporer? Or how about this. Why was there no explosive decompression when han stepped out of the millenium falcon inside the worm? Why didnt he even get a little bit cold? Why was there no digestive system inside the worm? Why did they rebuild the death star with pretty much the same weakness that destroyed the first one? I have not even watched these movies recently. I know that if i sit down and make a youtube video i can do a much better job than this. You can pick any movie apart, but that is stupidity. When you watch a movie, youre allowing the author to take you on a journey. If you choose to take the journey, then sit back and enjoy the ride. Dont sit there and think of all the possible ways this movie isnt like real life. Its a MOVIE. It was never supposed to be like real life. No movie is

Youre the one who just "dug himself in deeper". I did not compare OT films to PT films, redlettermedia did that. I merely pointed out how he was wrong. I'm beginning to think you really aren't playing dumb..you just honestly can't wrap your head around this simple concept. As I already explained directly to you in a previous post: 10 years before episode 2 was the time during which episode 1 took place. That's when Anakin blew up the droid control ship and foiled Palpatine's evil plot. At the beginning of episode 2, Anakin tells ObiWan "I havent seen padme in 10 years". IE ten years passed between episode 1 and episode 2. Understand? Did you notice between those two movies that Ani went from being 12 inches tall to 6 feet tall? Palpatine still needs to start a war, and needs not one but TWO armies to do so. The cloners explained to Obi-wan that the clones take 10 years to mature...because their growth rate is doubled. Hence, Palpatine and his clone army will not be able to start a war until 10 years after he places the order to buy the cones. When did Palpatine's apprentice, Darth Maul die?? 10 years ago. When did Palpatine obtain a new apprentice? 10 years ago. Who was the apprentice? Dooku. Who recruited a template for the clone army 10 years ago? Dooku. If Dooku tracked down and recruited Jango for a clone army, its a pretty safe bet that dooku was in charge of placing the order for the clone army that he recrutied Jango for. We learn from the Jedi Council that master sifo-dyas disappeared and was presumed dead are you ready for this? Pay attention cuz it'll happen quickly: **TEN YEARS AGO** Who did the cloners say placed the order for an army? Master Sifu-Dyas. When? 10 years ago...at precisely the same moment that Count Dooku recruited Jango FOR THE SAME ARMY. AND precisely the same time that Sifu-Dyas died. Dooku killed Sifu-Dyas, or simply took advantage of the fact that he was already dead, and used a false name to place the order. Do I need to explain why he might have wanted to use a fake name? Would you use your real name if youre doing something illegal? Dooku told the cloners his name was Sifo-Dyas, and he also told them the army was for the republic (the cloners repeated this to obi-wan). Why did he say it was for the republic? Well besides the fact that it really was for the republic, he probably had to give the cloners someone to forward the bill to. You don't start a project like massive cloning unless you're sure your customer is wealthy enough to pay for it. 1) You have yet to point out any hole in the plot. 2) I didnt call you stupid I said you were pretending. And I'm not gonna argue this out with you anymore or bother to read your other thread because i dont believe youre being completely honest with me...or even with yourself. One thing we do agree on is that the prequels suck. The way padme died was completely stupid. I did not even bother to watch them in theaters bcuz I've never been a fan of any of the movies. I waited till it came on dvd. I am simply pointing out that many of the holes redlettermedia claims are in the plot....are NOT really there. And that I disagree with people who say the prequels make no sense, have no storyline, or have no drama. They might suck, especially phantom menace, but they DO make sense. And they have oodles of vomit inducing drama.

I agree that George Lucas is woefully inept as a director and a writer. As for the rest...you have GOT to be kidding me. We know that Dooku was once a Jedi and fell to the dark side. After fighting Yoda, Count Dooku returns to Lord Sidious, who greets him with: "Welcome Lord Tyranus". We know that Jango Fett was recruited by Dooku for the purpose of being cloned into an army. And we know that Dooku works for palpatine. You have admitted this much yourself. Are you seriously going to stick with the story that you cannot make the logical leap that Dooku was involved in placing the order for a clone army? Why else did a he recruit Jango to be cloned? Youre simply being willfully defiant because you dont want to lose a petty argument. Let's continue. We KNOW palpatine wants to incite a war. We know that palpatine's apprentice is the one who recruited the template for an army used in that war. You cant make the logical leap that dooku did it on Palpatine's order? Let's continue. The clones were bred with some kind of brain wired short circuit called "order 66" in which they execute all jedi without question. These clones have been working for the Jedi for years now. They are suddenly going to receive a phone call **from the enemy** and execute their own leaders? And now suddenly they answer only to the very enemy they have been fighting against all along. You honestly can't figure out that this is impossible unless palpatine was their true master all along? You're childishly pretending to be obtuse so as to feel like you won an argument. Your "facts" are not facts at all. They are major comprehension shortcomings. Willful or not is up to you. The prequels are not fantastic movies....in some ways they are completely terrible. But they do NOT contain all the so called plot holes being claimed. For the record, what redlettermedia did....the way he shredded those movies.......that can be done to ANY movie including the OT.

I'm sorry, I just cant help myself, another one of his claims is so stupid I just have to point it out. He claims that it is a major continuity issue that nobody recognizes Jedi in the OT but everyone recognizes them in the Prequels. The OT was set approximately 20 years after the Jedi became pretty much extinct! It is a fair bet the empire made the topic of jedi illegal....confiscating and destroying all literature and making conversation about them a punishable offense. 20 years is a whole generation of people who were born and grew up to adulthood having never seen a jedi in their life....or even ever heard of one. In fact in real life, it only took about 25 years after extinction before nobody had any clue what a dodo bird was. And in fact Han Solo actually DID know what a jedi was, and so did Admiral Roth and several other characters of the OT. They called it an ancient hoaky religion....in the same way today's children might talk about the Beatles. There is NO hole here, and NO inconcsistency. Yes, they were. I did not write a new story....I explained what I saw when I watched the movie. Maybe they could have made certain things more obvious, but that doesn't mean I made stuff up that wasn't there. I made the conclusions I was led toward by the movie. In the same way that I did'nt get that Star Wars is Fantasy rather than Sci-Fi, although now that I look back on it it is completely obvious in every way. I'm actually surprised at your claim since the OT was MUCH more subtle than the prequels are. In a number of ways. The Prequels were ham-fisted and sort of shoved everything in your face.

You leapt to the conclusion without reading the actual post in question that I would be trying to make excuses for plot holes like an apologist. When in reality I'm saying that what he calls plot holes are not even really plot holes...the holes don't even exist. Major difference. To keep this short and simple I'll give you just one glaring example of his numerous mistakes. RedLetterMedia claims that it is a major plot hole that we dont know who made the order for a clone army and why the clone army was created....he claims that the army just happened to be there at the right time by coincidence. When in fact we were told directly in the movie that the order for a clone army was placed by lord tyrannus himself, AKA count dooku, AKA the apprentice of Lord Sidious. The order was place exactly at the moment in time after baby Anakin foiled palpatine's effort to incite a war by staging the trade federation blockade. Palpatine needed a plan b.....he ordered the creation of a clone army and 10 years later obi-wan discovers the army. RedLetterMedia made a very funny and enjoyable review but he was just plain wrong on several instances.

Couple things I wanna say to various people. "Jesus nanites"? I laughed my freakin arse off. Awesomeness. I agree it was totally stupid that anakin blew up the droid ship. I wrote it off with the following explanation: since it was a child with no training and no plan and no idea what he was doing he had a totally open mind and with a high level of jesus nanites the force was able to guide his actions. Still dumb but at least there was an explanation. redlettermedia was a very funny interview and spot on about movie mechanics and so forth but he was also wrong about half the stuff he pointed out. Most of his "plot holes" were actually things that just completely escaped his attention. I wrote the answers to several of his sarcastic questions, showing that his questions do not constitute proof of plot holes but rather show his lack of understanding. But I posted it in a different thread. "Jango was the warrior's warrior and got killed by a man with a glowing stick" Maybe the effort of this game to make all characters equal gave you some false expectations....but how could you really think a bounty hunter is going to outdo one of the top Jedi masters? This is a dude that can block bullets, see the future, telekinetic power, abnormally high reflexes and a blade that cuts through anything and everything with ease. He's practically baby superman. Jango is awesome and my second favorite character but his little pistol could never make him equal to a jedi master. Its just logical sense. Same with Han Solo