2012 macbook air....windows 10...intel 5k graphics.....lol

That Nadia has aggro at all tells me this is a L2P issue, because anything you hit you will have aggro on. Or did you decide to go make tea instead? Also did you know you can interrupt him the first time he tries to summon adds? The second time isn't interruptible, but with your gear, he should be pretty much dead by the time those adds actually land.

You can get rank 20 from about 250-300k worth of rank 2 gifts from the vendor on fleet, which you can get quickly by doing the heroics. So rank 10 is hardly a reasonable baseline.

I call bull. Balance sage, just killed Orus Jind above Voss. NO alliance buffs, NO stim, M1-4X at rank 31 (have rank C2 at rank 50, but skipped him for this test). Fight took 1m6s and I average 6,062 DPS. I apply DoTs and attack him, using DoT spread and FiB to kill the adds. At no time does anything switch to M1-4X. I reached 50% health at one point, which is when I used my stun on Orus. By the time the stun elapsed, I was back up to 75% health. http://imgur.com/tfTqPI3 The nerf to healing is definitely large and noticable, and probably worst for low-influence companions. But between the alliance buffs and the special abilities, the heroic SF is still very soloable, even with moderate influence.

This is the exact opposite of what needed to happen. A new player just starting out, especially one starting at 60, wont have a bank of credits or comms to buy gifts with to get their companion influence up. Nor will they have the experience with control, interrupt, and defensive abilities. Or the baseline of presence that legendary players have. In short, this is the group that needs a relatively more powerful companion, and you're inflicting the biggest nerf on them.

AFAIK the token is never given back, but you should be able to create a replacement level 60 after deleting him. But be careful, and when you create your 60, don't escape, spacebar, or otherwise skip anything at the opening. Best theory I've seen is that is what causes ppl to end up with level 1's.

Yes, it is a bug. Workaround is to change instances / zones (travelling to your stronghold and back will do), which will then let you allocate skill points. FYI, this seems to happen every time you pick a discipline that replaces an existing skill. My sage can switch from either DPS discipline to heals and commit skill points, but switching to a DPS spec requires a zone change. Oh, and you will probably have to retrain skills that are replaced when switching away from a discipline. Carry the hutt with you if you have him.

The patch notes for 4.0.1 in the launcher contain a message at the end "Please click <here> for a current list of high priority in-game known issues." The provided link is for the defunct (and about to become inaccessible) customer service forum: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=403398 Pretty sure the correct link would be: http://answers.ea.com/t5/STAR-WARS-The-Old-Republic/INFO-Known-Issues-and-Current-Alerts/m-p/4886775#U4886775

Isn't the current limit 12 for preferred? That's what the FAQ says anyway. http://www.swtor.com/support/helpcenter/7192

What makes you think it will be a single-player game? But, points taken. I'll take my tin foil beanie off now.

Well apparently EA has Visceral working on some kind of "open world" Star Wars game, as of late last year. There is probably no cause for alarm, as even if it proceeds, it isn't going to the see the light of day for several more years. And "if it proceeds" is a big if, since game projects get cancelled all the time. But still, it doesn't take much tinfoil to see the timing of LucasArts and Sony shutting down SWG vs the launch of this game, and wonder if it could happen again. Especially if it is in favor of another EA game.

Oh god, I hadn't even thought of that. This game could end up going the way of SWG.

Tomorrow morning is kinda too late in my view. Right now the ship cannot avoid the iceberg of going 14 months with only GSF, 1 new WZ, tactical FPs, and strongholds being the new content. The damage will be done, and they will have to look at post-expansion to get back on track. To that end, what I would like them to do: 1. Release level 55 HM versions of Collicoid and Red Reaper ASAP. 2. Follow up with HM/NiM versions of other FPs. Battle of Ilum and False Emperor are great FPs, but there is no reason to run them any more. Give me level 55 NiM versions of those before the expansion. 3. Add 2 new objective-based WZs. There has been an ongoing conversation about possibilities, put them in action. Spice up the PvP queues a bit by cycling what WZs are available every couple of weeks. All of this may have to wait for the expansion, but see below. 4. Bring back the Chevin event in the fall and the original Rakghoul event with open-world PvP areas, missions, and rewards. 5. Start talking about the expansion/level cap increase. Commit to a date, and give us a hint about the planet. Confirm it will contain at least 10 new operations bosses, new hard and tactical FPs, WZs, new daily areas, etc. 6. Enhance the social aspects of the game. Let us have an opposite faction guild with shared guild chat and bank, and account-wide friend/ignore lists. 7. Add cross server queues, required for ranked PvP, and optional for unranked and PvE. I know this is hard, and not something they can probably even approach until after the expansion. But move it from the wall-of-crazy to the queue of stuff to do. I'm going to finish with a change I've recognized that is incredibly positive and want to reinforce: communication and dialog about class balance changes. The discussions and circle of feedback directly with class developers going on in the PTS is amazing to see, and something I had given up hoping for. It is probably resulting in a bit more buffing than is entirely healthy, that needs to be dialed back, but the communication is revolutionary. Take that same level of transparency and apply it across the entire game, and you can foster a bunch more good will.

Timing is everything. That poll would have been soon after DF and DP were released, Bioware had a history of releasing ops every 6-8 months, and nobody knew it was going to be 14 months to the next one. No doubt, but when a portion of your subscribers/players spend a substantial amount of time running operations, and you stop producing operations for a long time, you HAVE to know that a significant number of that portion are going to reduce the amount of money they spend in your game, by cancelling their sub, etc. If you can afford to lose them, so be it. They will move on and hopefully you can attract different players to replace them and their money. But it feels like a very risky gamble to me.

The reason this happens is because raiders enjoy raiding. Like you, they have lots of alts, and don't mind running SM operations on them, even if there is no gear that is going to benefit them. It has nothing to do with not being able to get a guild raid together. And I'd argue that it is those more experienced players that raid on HM that tend to organize and lead operations in SM, and those players that help ensure those SM ops run smoothly and are cleared. I'd bet that a full 16-man of players that have never done HM are going to struggle immensely even in the so-called easy mode. Even with bolster. Without any doubt, this is absolutely correct. But this is also where the issue comes in even more significantly, because no new SM ops for 14 months should also be unacceptable. TfB will be close to 2.5 years old by the time new operations come out. S&V well over a year and half. DF+DP well over a year old. They need to do better than this.

With bolster rearing it's ugly head for GF operations, I'm not betting against you.

Same. Heck, I used to run TfB and S&V SM and HM 3 or even 4 times per week for most of 2013. Counting when it was a level 50 op, I've probably run TfB in various modes close to 300 times.

A fine sentiment and one I would share. But those of us that have been here since launch know that during 2012 and 2013 Bioware was capable of doing lots of stuff while simultaneously putting out a new raid every 6 to 8 months. That is a tiny, tiny portion of the raiding population in SWTOR. The vast majority of us raid (or in my case raided) on a fixed schedule between 8-12 hours a week tops, even during new content releases. If it takes us two months to clear it, so be it, as long as it gets cleared and we can get geared before the next tier of operations comes out.

EA certainly will, but not necessarily for this game, considering they have "Star Wars games in development at our DICE and Visceral studios".

Most people/groups are going to insist on using GF for the extra comms. Groups will still form outside of it, but will enter with GF.

Agreed with everything you said, but wanted to add to this. 10 bosses in one shot is more than we never saw before. DF+DP was a pretty huge amount of content. So I'd be perfectly content to give them a bit of leeway to the next operation. Ten months before would have been long, but justifiable. It would mean a new op coming in August, which while still a bit out, is close enough to encourage people to stay active in their guilds and raid teams. Twelve months though would be a REALLY long time to make us wait. And 14? Completely unacceptable. And Andryah, 14 is exactly what we are looking at right now. Unless you think there is an actual probability of the Makeb-like expansion coming in October, which I wouldn't put my money on. So I think Andryah is right. This game does not cater to PvPers. Or raiders. Or role players. Or...wait, who is left to cater to? I guess solo players only here for the class stories, which can be experienced without spending a dime, and those that want to play Space Barbie Doll House.

NOOO... You...You take that back right now!!!

And during the period when we had new raids added every 6 to 8 months, they were also working on legacy system, customizable UI, new FPs, new WZs, Makeb, server merges (x2!), the F2P transition, the CM, several events, the GSF expansion, NiM raids, etc etc. Doing raids did not seem to inhibit them from also doing other things at the same time. I agree. For me it feels like they crossed that point with GSF, and are making it worse with strongholds.

Not really. The raiding scene in SWTOR was just fine and dandy with a new operation showing up every 6 to 8 months. Players of other games even called it "above average". Nobody complains about other stuff being added. During the time when a new operation was being added every 6 to 8 months, we also had new WZs (at least until the end of 2012), flashpoints, events, daily areas, and an expansion with a level cap bump. Raiders did not complain en masse about any of that stuff being added. But when the cadence of content you value more than doubles, it is entirely justified to complain about it, and look at what Bioware IS focusing on, and wonder if they have their priorities right. Some might make snide or rude comments, I try to avoid going too over the top on those. But either way, feedback doesn't always come with a pretty bow. And I'd also point out that PvPers have complained, quite justifiably, about a lack of content for them. Ranked, OWPVP, and a lack of new WZs have all been sources of contention, with quite a few claiming that Bioware only cared about PvE carebears. If that isn't snide or rude, I don't know what is. Of course that never really bothered me - I was too busy raiding to care. :-)

I'm sorry you had bad experiences. Truly I am. When I organized SM ops, the only thing I asked was that you tell me ahead of time that you don't know the mechanics. And that you be able to follow an instruction as simple as "wait here with everyone else, go grab a coffee, whatever, but do not go past this door until my guildie with the star above their head moves." Or alternatively, "follow bolt, hit what he hits". Having said that, if you were willing to join our voice chat to listen to instructions (you didn't have to speak, just be able to hear us), you would have already elevated yourself above 70% of the PuGs on the server. If you headed over to Dulfy.net to read the operations guide ahead of time to get an idea of the SM mechanics, you were above 90%.