Agreed that anyone in a pug should be able to roll on whatever because of legacy gear -- obviously rolling on implants/earpiece/relics they already have is trolling. There's a big difference between a guild run where you pass on gear because you're trying to stack your team for progression, and a pug where you'll carry a bunch of people you'll never see again. If someone with a full set bonus is expected to pass on everything in a pug run "because charity", you're going to get fewer good players wanting spend their time pugging.

Not really. If I'm going to play a story driven game, I'd rather be able to play it at my pace and not beholden to an ongoing development schedule that has been proven to rarely meet its goals (or our expectations). Having the pieces doled out a little at a time is just annoying, for the same reasons I'd rather watch a TV show on Netflix or DVD instead of having to catch an episode every week on network TV.

Overall, pretty disappointing. I'm glad they are buffing the old Ops to give them a purpose again, but that's kind of a side-show that I'm not really too pumped to spend a few hours a night on. Story is good and all, but when it comes down to it, we can go play Mass Effect, Witcher 3, or something that's probably going to be more focused storytelling without paying a sub. I'm here to hang out with people and have a good time while working toward a common purpose, which, for many, is to clear content. Isn't that what MMOs are about? I'm really hoping they can very quickly let us know a new Operation will be out in early 2016 and these buffed Ops are just a tide-over. Otherwise, I can't see many raiders sticking around.

Yeah, I've seen that before -- I'm aware it has been done by a very skilled group that already had the boss on farm. It's not impossible, just not ideal when setting up a group where most people will be going for their first clear.

Yeah, I don't really have any class restrictions except that I'd prefer 3 ranged + 1 melee (or 4 ranged). The group currently has 2 ranged dps, so I could use the Jugg or the Sin above. We could try to run with both if there's a lack of other applicants, and it would probably be fine for most fights provided you all know your stuff. Revan will be significantly more difficult with 2 non-PT melee though.

Yep, an assassin would be fine.

Nice work. Congrats!

Yup. Though I don't play Syrgeas much anymore, aside from the random HM Monolith farming. RIP Marauders. My sin tank, Hypacia, is currently tagged as GM.

Don't worry about gear. As long as you can get 186/190 stuff through crafting/ziost and augmented, that's enough. I'll take a good player over a geared one any day. (Also, we can get someone geared pretty fast if needed) Though, if you've never Merc dps'd before, that might be an issue....

<Shadow Council> is starting a new Friday - Saturday late night team from 11pm-2am EST. The team still needs a couple full-time dps, or possibly a tank. This team is intended to push HM 8/10 pretty quickly and start working on Cora and Revan, so please have experience with HM fights (6/10-7/10 at a minimum), equivalent NiM experience with a previous tier, or some high-end parses to show when applying. You can contact me here, or hit up Hypacia/Koenyg or Rth/Rathom in game. Thanks! Guild Overview: Shadow Council has been active in SWTOR since launch. We are an adults-only guild (18+), with players that focus primarily on progression PvE, and some casual PvP. We are an average size guild, with 50-60 currently active members. The guild overall is 5/5 ToS HM and 5/5 Rav HM and our raid schedules are as follows: Progression Teams Team 1: Tues/Wed., 8pm-11pm EST Team 2: Tues., Wed., Mon., 11pm - 2am EST Team 3: Thurs-Fri., 8pm-11pm EST Team 4: Fri-Sat.; 11pm-2am EST There are also several unscheduled pick-ups throughout the week if people happen to be on. If you are interested in joining a team that isn't currently taking apps, feel free to let me know and I'll check back with you should something open up in the future. Thanks!

That's really a big problem with ranking "top" dps on a lot of operations fights. On any boss with downtime between phases (which is a lot of them this tier), or stacks like Mal, you will put up the best numbers if you run with three "bads" who you can steal dps from because their low numbers give you more time to dummy parse before transitions. Raid DPS is the more impressive number to look at, IMO.

<Shadow Council> (E) is looking for a couple people to fill dps and healer slots for our newest team which runs Sunday from 4pm-7pm EST. The team is currently less hardcore than our progression groups, so we are open to applicants with intermediate raiding experience who are willing to work to gain skills and familiarity with the new operations, or to hardcore raiders interested in helping others learn the ropes. Early runs will be SM stuff for gearing, before moving into HM. The team you would be running with is currently 5/5 on both SM and 1/5 on both HMs. If interested, you can contact me here on the forums or message/whisper Koenyg or Hypacia in game. Thanks! Guild Overview: Shadow Council has been active in SWTOR since launch. We are an adults-only guild (18+), with players that focus primarily on progression PvE, casual PvE, and casual PvP. We are an average sized guild, with 50-60 currently active members. The guild overall is currently 5/5 HM Ravagers, and 4/5 HM ToS and our raid schedules are as follows: Progression Teams Team 1: Tues/Wed., 8pm-11pm EST Team 2: Tues., Wed., Mon., 11pm - 2am EST Team 3: Thurs-Fri., 8pm-11pm EST Team 4: Sunday 4-7pm EST There are also several unscheduled pick-ups throughout the week if people happen to be on. If you are interested in joining a team that isn't currently taking apps, feel free to let me know and I'll check back with you should something open up in the future. Thanks!

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but another problem is what Bioware did with comm gear for 3.0. I run HM Ops on my tank weekly with my guild, and am pretty much min/max'd, but I still haven't done a single Flashpoint of any kind since 3.0 dropped, and I've PUGed SM Ops only a couple times as a favor to some guildies who were in the group. During the 2.0 era, I would regularly queue for flashpoints or join SM operations with my tank to farm comms for BiS mods for my DPS/Healer toons. With 3.0, there is no incentive to do this.

Well...rotation is garbage, but at least it looks like we have the top parsing spec (provided we can stay on target), so that's something I guess. (I'm assuming you are still using 192 MH for this parse) I wish they would go back to 2.10, but, based on the feedback in this forum, so does every experienced Mara/Sent. By now, Bioware certainly knows that's what everyone wants, so I'm guessing there is some internal pressure preventing them from acting. Maybe some QA, combat engine change, or development tools designed to save cost that won't allow a dynamic spec like 2.10 Marauder? If there isn't some huge cost for them associated with rolling back to 2.10, then they are just trolling us. Either way, it would be nice for them to let us in on why they can't or won't revert.

Yep, bosses hit hard and so does summer. I know I just got back from a week-long beach vacation, and I'm pretty sure we've gone like 2 weeks without any of the raid teams having all of their scheduled members present.

Yep, but they do have to avoid falling rocks, and have time to get behind the rocks after the adds are dead. Basically, a predation lets a ranged move close to a rock shelter while killing adds, or get behind the rocks if the dps was slow and an add is still up. Granted, it's not really needed if your group can torch the adds well before the rock channel finishes, but it does make that phase a lot more forgiving -- lowers the skill cap quite a bit.

^ True, which is why I added the caveat, "depending on the group". If you stack an 8-man with all BH and PT, you will have the best group for clearing everything in current content, but that's a Merc vs Everything discussion, not a Ranged vs. Melee. For instance, the add slows in UL are very dangerous for a sniper, and a little dangerous for a sorc.

Generally, there is no reason to bring melee, but I'd argue in a few niche cases you may want one over a ranged depending on the group....but probably only a Marauder for the Predation and Bloodthirst buffs, or maybe Juggernaut for Saber Reflect cheese. Specifically, I'm thinking: HM Monolith: Juggernaut for reflect cheese, Mara Predation to get everyone to the color mechanic quickly HM Underlurker: Mara predation so the group can ignore add slows HM Ruugar: Enrage is a real threat here, so a Mara for bloodthirst may be needed. (Our first Ruugar kill had an Anni Marauder in the group).

<Shadow Council> killed Monolith HM 16 Man.

I've single-tank cheesed it on assassin a couple times with various groups of healers. Force shroud right as enrage starts to ensure you can get him off any nearby rifts and eat the last ticks of bite wounds without getting globaled. Then roll cooldowns. One tip is to spec into Fade + Shroud on Stealth. During the purple enrage, if it looks like you are about to die (say like 30-40% hp), stealth out and immediately taunt back...the 2 seconds of immunity will give your healers time to put you back to full health. Also, be sure to move your phase walk behind the boss at each rift if you aren't doing that.

If you can't use your sin's cd's to cheese mechanics, there's no point to playing one... just reroll PT like everyone else and hydraulic all the knockbacks.

In addition to people not wanting the pressure of being front-and-center during each pull, I think a big reason for a lack of tanks is that it's way faster to level as a DPS, so people learn that during the story content. Then when they hit 60, switching to tank would require learning something new, so only the most motivated bother.

Suggestion: Allow a phase to each operation to be placed inside a guild ship (perhaps via shuttle decorations inside the hangars that could drop from the end boss of each Operation). The maximum number of such phases allowed in the ship would be capped by the number of modules unlocked. For example, a new ship would allow only one operation phase in the ship, while a fully unlocked ship would allow all operations to be phased. Rationale: As a guild that doesn't do any RP, we use our ship summon feature to frequently move people to various operations, but otherwise have little desire / incentive to work toward unlocking the entire ship. Tying a graduated QoL feature to ship unlocks would provide some incentive for non-RPers to farm frameworks and purchase the unlocks.

If you are just doing the story and then SM Operations at 60, there is absolutely no reason to avoid Marauder if you enjoy the class. A lot of people don't like how the rotation(s) work since 3.0, but if you are just starting out, maybe you won't care. For HM Operations, you need to be a very good player or you will be a drag on your group in some of the more difficult fights (Revan, Torque, Ruugar)...but that's true of all the 4m melee classes. But from your question, I doubt you are edging to push the toughest content in the game with your Mara, so you should be fine. Edit: PvP, yeah Jugg is going to be better. For PvE, I don't think Jugg is better at all...Mara Predation is a clutch group buff, and you also bring the Bloodthirst.

The more I think about this, it's starting to smell. [puts on tinfoil hat] Yesterday, Bioware was on the low ground, as you say, having enraged everyone by telling them "Here's some Mara stuff you don't want, and btw, L2P. Today they claim "some people on the internet harassed us IRL", and the conversation is no longer about how bad the Mara changes are, or how they told us we are all bads...now it's about how the community is acting like a bunch of idiots. Even Ardarell_Solo is saying he's done for now, out of respect for the situation. Is this really the first time someone on the internet has acted like an idiot toward Bioware staff? Or is this just a convenient time to trot out a case of bad behavior by a few to recover from a huge PR misstep by changing the narrative? [/takes off tinfoil hat] I could be way off base here, but it just doesn't seem likely to me that a game with 1 million + players wouldn't get trolled / harassed by a few gutter-dwellers on a routine basis, yet this is the first time we've heard of something like this.