Umm not true.. 5 wipes in one and I was out 45,000 credits. Do the math, it's quite easy to blow through 100K+ every few FP's if you wipe. Costs are outrageous right now, and it is retarded.. Really. Payouts are crap, risk vs reward is NOT there, and it is ruining this game, driving people away.

61-66 tank? LOL I tanked them easily with a 126 ranked, then it became noticebly easier at 136, now at 146 it's pure cakewalk, I rarely drop under half health and that's if the healer is asleep. You can easily pug these hard modes these days.

Bump.. Are the devs aware of this oversight?

Agreed.. They aren't hard. I took my tank from 126 rating to 146 in 2 days, gear drops were fine, comms were fine.. Granted they SEEMED hard at 126 with guys that weren't geared. But get even slightly geared dudes in these, and will you destroy them. A couple of dread DPS and the bosses die before 2-3 skill cycles. It's ridiculous. Hard Modes in Rift were very hard at first, but gear progression made them trivial. So everyone went to 10 man raids for gear, which were hard at first, then become trivial. If anything they need to add 'really hard' modes in ADDITION to the hard modes.. More progression... Flashpoints Tier 1 Flashpoints (hard) Tier 2 Flashpoints (very hard) With equivalent rewards in each, and yes the blue gear MUST be removed, it's not even fitting for companions.

The PVP relics will actually be quite good if they remove the expertise, and boost the stats. My guess - they forgot to do this. Which is really odd because if you play the game you'd see this immediately, and know this should be part of the change over. Overall I am happy with the stat boosts on my War Hero stuff, I basically have a 146 rating now across the board, with stats that are quite close to Basic, and better than Classic (somewhere in the middle). Which is perfect, as I can skip the classic stuff now and move right along. So any grinding in PVP actually paid off, as you have T2 gear now, and it is fully usable in PVE+PVP. The only peopel I see complaining will be ones that relied exclusively on outgrearing their opponents, and well.. Those kids can quit the game for all I care. Let's fix the relics BW... Sheesh.

You guys got armor, weapons, and implants. But forgot to program in the change for War Hero/EWH relics. They still have tons of expertise on them.. Slight oversight, but really?

Like the 'everyone gets trophies and ribbons' at events, competitions now, right? Ugh... Is this our future?

To me this was a huge waste of programming/developer time. What's the point of them? What's the point of them in ANY game? I never understood why they mattered, and why people cared about them. It seemed to me that OCD people, with a form of mental illness were obsessed with 'collecting' this kind of crap. "Collector" personalities are a form of mental illness - by the way. About the most I have seen from achievements is a form of bragging, but again nobody cares. I knew a guy in Rift that collected every mount, and of course you can only ride one at a time, but he is mentally ill and requires every single thing to be complete. But he also spent 10-12 hours a day gaining achievements, and I am absolutely unable to understand WHY. So why cater to a extreme minority in a game by devoting programming/development time to such nonsense?

Who the hell cares about achievements???? If you care this much about them then you need some help man. I never really understood achievements, I could care less if I get one. Nobody sees them, they aren't even good for bragging rights because nobody cares. So what's the point? I think people so enamored by achievements have a form of OCD mental illness..

PVP is awesome now. Anyone that says otherwise is likely upset they can't own undergeared newbs now. Tough luck kids.

Cross server PVP queues are a MUST. Anyone that says otherwise, doesn't PVP, or likes to own the same newbs day in and day out. I want instant queues, and cross server brings those. Everyone agrees. These whiners saying it ruins communities are hilarious.. HILARIOUS... Rift had cross server PVP and it absolutely ENHANCED community if anything.

Actually, the highest skilled pvp MMOs of old, didn't rely on gear, it was skill.. Meridian59 everyone basically had the same gear, with at best slight variations. PVP was insane, intense, and amazing. They didn't have levels, rather "HP", you started at 10hp, and went up to 100hp. But a 50hp guy with touch of flame could drop a 100hp dude in battle if he had skill. The 50hp guy had the same gear in general, it was all about skill and class speccing. MANY (if not most) of the best old school MMOs functioned in this way.. DAOC (early on) for example, virtually everyone was in the same sets of armor/weapons by max level. So it really came down to skill, and DAOC early on had what most feel was the best PVP ever. Then the 'gear' infatuation game along, and literally ruined it. The gear infatuation needs to die a quick and painful death, it's usefulness has been outlived by a huge margin. The number of games ruined by excessive gear discrepancies is quite long. Warhammer was destroyed by Gear-Flation. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to catch up, and anyone coming into the game has no hope in ever having a fair fight. The end result is, people quit, the game dies. Same with Rift, nobody in their right mind would grind out to the higher ranked gear because it is too painful to experience the lower ranked face stop. As a result Rift has failed, the game is dying, and they've removed all focus from PVP and closed down the PVP servers, and removed daily quests, and basically shelved PVP.. It's too broken, and as a result they lost their PVP players. Gear-Grinding doesn't work in PVP, this has been well established. The primary reason is it creates imbalances that can't be overcome in a competitive game. F2P model has done wonders to bring back fairness in all games that have the model. Guildwars 2 did wonders for showing you don't need insane gear-flation, or crazy gear progressionto keep people pvping, and playing. Star Trek Online had PVP issues because some folks had Jem'Hadar ships and destroyed people. The fix? Give everyone an equivalent ship to Jem'hadar for christmas, and end the gear gap! Right now you can enter STO, and within a week or two 'fully compete' in hardcore PVP against anyone.. That's how it should be. SWTOR is moving in the right direction, and Hickman is a genius with this latest patch. My guess a lot of hardcore kiddies are butt-hurt now that they don't have legions of recruit geared softies to take down.. My advice is - live with it or move on, it's not going anywhere.. If you can't compete on a 100% even playing field, find a few game.

No they should not, and this is exactly what is broken in many MMO PVP. Warhammer was disastrously broken in PVP because of gear gaps, and Hickman knows this full and well. It basically destroyed the game. Imagine having characters in the game that can take on 5-6 other people quite easily, and how this will deflate the fun for virtually anyone trying to compete. Rift had similar issues, and desperately tried to fix them - and never really accomplished this. You had RR80 people instantly killing RR40 people that did nothing wrong other than try to play the game as it was intended to be played. They lost hundreds of thousands of players because of the insane gear gap between new max level players, and existing ones. This of course was FUN for the RR80's, stomping face of the newbs. But it drove off important paying customers. SWTOR had a huge issue with gear gap and level early on. Remember? Some folks rushed to 50, and were placed in warzones with level 10's. It was not pretty, and drove off legions of customers. It is one of the reasons I quite the game early on, and I guarantee hundreds of thousands quit for this reason. They added in a bracket for 50's which solved PART of the issue. But the bolster still was not effective enough to compensate. I suspect the reason for the rage right now is a lot of people that were used to stomping face, aren't doing it any longer. People that relied on gear to faceroll, aren't facerolling anymore, and are angry. A lot of hack-like guilds with premades are having immense trouble facerolling in 50+ PVP right now. On my server it was hilarious to watch 'Smell my Finger' get their arses handed to them all last night in 50+ PVP. Where the bolster is effective, and working. However these same guys were destroying pre-50 PVP last night because they 'abused' the naked mechanics. The answer to cheaters like this is a 'normalization', and then skill becomes a primary factor, and people feel SATISFIED over battles. When it is gear based, people don't feel satisfied because there are always kiddies that mini-max gear to take advantage of others. Guildwars2 and other MMO's are setting the standard with normalized PVP and Cosmetic gear advances. Putting the fun and challenge back into PVP by making it skill based, rather than gear based.

No they should not, and this is exactly what is broken in many MMO PVP. Warhammer was disastrously broken in PVP because of gear gaps, and Hickman knows this full and well. It basically destroyed the game. Imagine having characters in the game that can take on 5-6 other people quite easily, and how this will deflate the fun for virtually anyone trying to compete. Rift had similar issues, and desperately tried to fix them - and never really accomplished this. You had RR80 people instantly killing RR40 people that did nothing wrong other than try to play the game as it was intended to be played. They lost hundreds of thousands of players because of the insane gear gap between new max level players, and existing ones. This of course was FUN for the RR80's, stomping face of the newbs. But it drove off important paying customers. SWTOR had a huge issue with gear gap and level early on. Remember? Some folks rushed to 50, and were placed in warzones with level 10's. It was not pretty, and drove off legions of customers. It is one of the reasons I quite the game early on, and I guarantee hundreds of thousands quit for this reason. They added in a bracket for 50's which solved PART of the issue. But the bolster still was not effective enough to compensate. I suspect the reason for the rage right now is a lot of people that were used to stomping face, aren't doing it any longer. People that relied on gear to faceroll, aren't facerolling anymore, and are angry. A lot of hack-like guilds with premades are having immense trouble facerolling in 50+ PVP right now. On my server it was hilarious to watch 'Smell my Finger' get their arses handed to them all last night in 50+ PVP. Where the bolster is effective, and working. However these same guys were destroying pre-50 PVP last night because they 'abused' the naked mechanics. The answer to cheaters like this is a 'normalization', and then skill becomes a primary factor, and people feel SATISFIED over battles. When it is gear based, people don't feel satisfied because there are always kiddies that mini-max gear to take advantage of others. Guildwars2 and other MMO's are setting the standard with normalized PVP and Cosmetic gear advances. Putting the fun and challenge back into PVP by making it skill based, rather than gear based.

I am wearing Cartel suit with Tionese mods in it. What I noticed is, if I remove my War Hero, my stats go up. Which I think is where the bug is. However I am still using war hero without feeling underpowered. But I did see the 'average' damage in WZ's go up.. I thought I was doing well at 300,000dmg, but then I saw a whole bunch of toons doing 500,000dmg.. Hilarious. I guarantee they weren't war hero toons. If anything, the bug is the way it handles war hero gear.. Just taking off a War Hero relic bumps me up by 2500 hp. Which is pretty stupid.

I got to say, since the patch I have had the most amazing, challenging, and fun warzones ever!!!! Seriously.. I am not that well geared for PVP, and was doing really well, shooting as I should shoot, the damage felt 'right', and I what was being done to me felt fair. Overall it flowed very well, was quicker but more pleasing. I actually think it is working as it should. What I think the problem is - most people weren't used to fighting at maxed stats/gear, and now with the enhanced bolster they are experiencing the game as those of us in EWH have for a long time already. It feels strong, it feels fast, damage is high. But that's how it was for many people that knew how to mini-max, use stims, and have the right skills. Overall I approve of this change, it's working as it should.

Actually, as someone that has played MMO's since 1985 with Meridian59 onward, I do know exactly what a grind is. In M59 if you died, you lost a level, and a level might take weeks, if not months to recover. Everquest was worse, sometimes weeks for a level, and YEARS to max. So yes child, I know what a grind is. But none of us will ever tolerate that kind of nonsense again. It's a dated, expired method of gaming nobody likes, and few will tolerate any longer. Those days are long past - thankfully. I want casual, productive leveling, or I take my money elsewhere. Period.

Actually people that rushed to 50 and quit exist for a short time in every mmo, they never play a single one very long. They are impatient, hardcore gamers, with a lot of extra time. I see them burn through every mmo in the first few weeks of launch, then you never see them again. I remember a guy in DAOC that leveled to 50 in 7 days, and ran around PKing everyone lower level that took months to level up to match him. After a few weeks when people caught up, he left the game. Hilarious. About a year later he came back, and I remember 2 shotting him and laughing about it, and he quit again. These kinds of people are ego based, and do this because they cannot compete in games, and want the 'early edge' against true gamers, and good customers. SWTOR experienced the same thing. I knew a lot of folks that rushed to 50, then 'owned' in unbolstered warzones against people leveling up. They were in full champions gear in short order. Where are they now? All of them - 100% of them, are gone, and will never return. I am consistent, I play the same MMO's for years, but I am considered casual. If a game doesn't cater to casual then I have no patience to play it. But if a game does, I can play it for years, and will continue to give it money. I didn't play STO early on because it didn't cater to casuals, now I play it and will continue to play it. SWTOR virtually ignored casuals early on, and now seems to be moving to cater towards them. Therefore I intend to become a long term SWTOR subscriber - provided they continue to cater to my casual type of gameplay. One of my friends rushed his Smuggler(very OP awhile back) to 50, Champion geared, then 1-2 shot people in WZ's before the bolster.. He thought he was Mr. Badarse the whole time, when in reality he simply grinded out hardcore and took gear/level advantages over others. I'd like to see him come back now, or especially after 2.0 with the universal expertise bolster.. But the simple answer is - he wouldn't because now the playing field is leveled. Guys like him are disgusting really, these are the guys based exclusively on the ego, and will do anything to 'best' the next guy.. These are the clowns that finance $6,000.00 grills so they can one-up their neighbor. Pathetic really, most of us have outgrown this nonsense after we left highschool.. I am thankful SWTOR doesn't cater to these clowns, they will never make a DIME off of them. Games that cater towards the elites, grinders, and mini-maxers are doomed to fail. These are some of the most impatient, fickle, and attention disordered people in the world, one little sliver in their toe and they run off. They are also the most vocal, giving the impression they are the majority, when in fact they are in the extreme minority. 80% of SWTOR gamers are casual in nature by definition, so the choice is really - do you want to cater to a fickle, fleeting 20%, or your 80% that are casual? 2x is fantastic, and I hope they extend it to the launch of makeb, and make them re-appear as bonus weekends. I will keep playing, and keep leveling alts, and I guarantee others will do the same. I don't have the patience to level otherwise, frankly. But I also work, have a family, and play other games, and do other things. So no game can consume too much of my time, it's just not tolerated.

Spring break starts as well, they should extend 2x until Makeb launches. That would drive up sales on it, guaranteed. My kids accounts won't have time to reach 50 unless they extend it, therefore no makeb purchases for them. If they extended it, I would buy 2 additional expansions.

Agreed, it is perfect.. I quit SW because I felt leveling was too painful, and slow. 2x brought me back, but I fear if 2x goes away I will go away, and my 3 accounts with me.

Black Hole will be the new 'generalized' end-game gear, and will drop from all FP's, WB's and other stuff. Columi+Tionese will be gone. Existing WH/EWH will be stat boosted to match the new PVP armor. Recruit will be forever gone, if you like the way it looks, buy it now. 20+40 PVP armor will disappear, if you like the way that looks, better hurry. Right now I am farming WH on my new 50 Inquisitor because it looks great on girl toons, and will be rare in a couple of weeks. All of the new PVP armor has same expertise up to 55, the 55 has higher. WH/EWH will be upgraded to factor this higher expertise as well. Changes here; http://dulfy.net/2013/02/20/swtor-patch-2-0-patch-notespts/

No question.. The new brackets will thin out the players, and this will become an even bigger issue. But frankly, I am sick of facing the same hackers everyday. I need a new group of hackers to face off with, and cross server will offer that. Get on the ball EA.

400K base, when everyone else is doing 200.. Yeah, its OP. I've seen them do just under a million, and survive the entire time, with 2 deaths. Let's face it, they are OP and need the nerf bat.

Well SWTOR is a slow grind for people that are casual, real slow to be honest. I never had the patience to grind it out, and I know a whole lot of people that felt the same way. Nevertheless, a major issue I see already since coming back is Warzone Queues simply *MUST* be cross server. On JM the queues can get several minutes, but since hitting 50 I have never gotten a warzone.. Rift did cross server queues, and it vastly improved the game. This needs to go in pretty quick, especially with so few servers.

Seriously.. Also this 2x has netted SWTOR 3 total subbed accounts, as my kids have come back due to the 2x, and our extreme dislike for long grinds. I quit the game nearly a year ago, my Sith Inquis languishing at level 40, tired of the slow leveling. My kids quit around the same time, for the same reasons. I saw the 2x email, came back last weekend, got my Sith Inquis from 40-47 from VERY casual play last weekend, and subbed as a result. You've won back this subscriber if you keep it up, and run specials like this. It is very good for business! I play World of Tanks, and WOT has 'exp boost weekends' fairly often, and it draws back people in droves.. Please continue to do these specials even after the expansion. Also, I am very pleased with the advances the game has made since I left. I consider it one of the finest MMO's out there right now. I hated STO on launch, but also play that now due to their major improvements, and they too run special weekends.