Just re-subbed. I took one glance at the F2P features and shilled out $15 immediately. Playing one new class campaign is an enormous number of hours, and I'm not messing with "restrictions" for any amount of time. No-brainer.

I think they'll coerce a good number of people into subscribing. I just re-subbed after playing it for a grotesque amount of time for 3 months last year. Looking at the F2P restrictions, and considering how much time even a single SP campaign involves, $15 is a no-brainer, unless you're 12 and your Mom won't give you the money. I can't promise a long subscription, but every $15 they get from a month's sub is roughly equivalent to a $60 box game retail sale, as I understand the economics. The game didn't capture the insane WoW subscriber base, but how many people are actively playing through the ME3 campaign right now? 200,000? I could write a mean article about "Red Dead Redemption," if I wanted, which I stopped playing after 10 hours. I stopped playing TOR after hundreds(!) of hours or something absolutely disgusting (which is why I quit.) These sniping articles are bogus, to me.

I have to admit I'm a little annoyed by this, as well, especially since they went and changed the UI location for "hide head slot," and they could have added "hide robe hoods." The functionality is obviously there, as hoods disappear with certain headgear. Love this game, but "cart-before-the-horse" design philosophy...hiding the hood slot can give a player greater personal connection to their character (especially when she is sexy.) My once-pretty Sith Inquisitor now looks like a Victorian in a creepy gimp mask, or half-Jawa. Those are my options. Letting me see her hair reminds me she is human. Remember when Obi-wan had his hood up in "Star Wars" and he was weird and mysterious and vaguely threatening, and then he took it down and he was suddenly, instantly relatable? Don't see how "sympathetic connection to your character" is low-priority in the context of this game, when the storytelling is so diffused that the game necessarily struggles to be an engaging Bioware experience, even with the best writing possible.

The writing does bog down in cliches or MMO quest-absurdity, often, which is why I find it hard to play Republic. The Jedis are unrelentingly boring. Even the Jedi Knight story almost put me to sleep. Jedis are really boring in the prequel trilogy, too, so it's not even Bioware's fault. I could never go dark-side in most Bioware games because I took the characters too seriously. But there's a tight, focused story in SP games. In my opinion the best writing in TOR basically shows how the Sith Empire is a fractious mess doomed to failure, and your Sith is a part of that dysfunction. Also, imagining a universe with trillions of people, the idea that 100 people compete to be Sith and only 1 survives is totally plausible, even if you imagine there are 100,000 Sith running around. Sith might be cartoonishly villainous, but it keeps me sort of interested, since the story is not gripping or tight, otherwise, because of the hugeness. And I'm not dogpiling on the game like trolls and "critics." Yeah: the stories could have been better, even as they stand (i.e., removing the ridiculous "gift" requirement for seeing companion conversations,) but in an MMO like this they are pretty great.

I just re-subbed for a month or two to play the game again, and I'm starting to feel a little bad for "The Old Republic," especially in light of the virtual dogpile actually making the Bioware heads resign. This was a great game with a few questionable design choices. I played the game for about 3 months straight last year, more than any game I've ever played in my life, and had a blast. Did all the heroic quests and flashpoints in teams, enjoyed the stories (the sith ones, anyway,) and now I'm coming back to invest another 100 hours (oh God.) I quit subscribing because it was too addictive, for God's sake. I'm just not a "subscribing" player--I play Mass Effect 3 for a week and then maybe play it again a year later. Never played another MMO. I was their ideal player (looking for story,) and I loved it--I just didn't subscribe for years, since I don't do that. The game is still awesome. I've still paid them $130 in total for their supergame. So they didn't quite crack whatever mojo makes WoW players subscribe for years. And their free to play model is a trap to show players how addictive and awesome the game is (which you might have missed if you're reading game journalism)--someone call the police.

I liked immortal so much I didn't even blink when I re-rolled as Jedi Guardian, same spec. You can get the majority of the fun powers by level 30 if you go all-in on Immortal. Your array of stuns will work on elites and even the wimpier champions. You can hit them with so many incapacitating powers, the Jugg qualifies as the best solo-elite killer in the game. You might want to more pick what talents look useful early-on, then re-spec around level 28 (but stay in Soresu form.) Use Vette or apprentice J. later--for killing things fast. The immortal tree's many stuns (backhand, stasis, force charge & auto-2 second stun, force push) favor a DPS companion wailing away on them while they're incapacitated. With good gear, you WILL NOT need a healer, even for bosses. Since you're using a DPS companion, you+companion will easily put out more DPS than DPS-specced Juggs+healer.

Khem Val is the best companion, for me. He's a monster who eats people, and I'm a Sith Lord. As a healer sorc, he felt most like an extension of myself--like he was the body I fought through. For "role-playing," I felt like Khem gave my character depth, in a weird way. Like, I could imagine a legendary Sith Lord who just always fights with his ancient monster bodyguard/slave. That seems like a new, cool idea for a Sith Lord. If you met a Sith Lord like that in the game, it'd be distinctive and memorable. Much like the Emperor has his "Wrath." A great Sith Lord who always has his Twi-lek slave gunning people down from a distance is, in comparison, kinda "???" "huh?"

I never geared Sgt. Rusk, but I know from my trooper ranged DPS companion, Arric--that with heavy armor I believe they may qualify as the best DPS companions, objectively. Pretty simple algebra--with DPS being equal, they wear heavy armor. Is DPS equal? I think. I'm pretty sure Arric does gunslinger-like damage while retaining his heavy armor. I use Kira, but I know even with mid-30s purple gear she's becoming vulnerable to occasional deaths on Belsavis. I don't believe tank companions have armor buffs beyond just heavy armor, so their main advantage is simply using their taunts. If you use your ranged DPS to draw aggro first, you can usually use them like a quasi-tank. Guardians can taunt aggro off, if necessary.

Revan "disappears," and so does Obi-wan--so he might as well be a force ghost. Here's an idea: since Revan fell to the dark side again before you kill him, maybe his ghost actually tears in two, light/dark? This would allow imperial players to consult with "dark side Revan" and light side players to talk to "light side Revan," while 1)sorta respecting your choices from KOTOR more, 2)making it seem like they planned it all along. Obviously if Revan comes back like "whew! Sorta went dark side there, but those imperial players killing me cured it!", it'd be lame anyway. Even the disappearing would make sense, since he's becoming a force ghost. I don't know if it would work, but it's one idea.

I think the really objectionable aspect of "The Foundry" is fighting (?) HK and Revan, when you'd much rather they be helping you, in whatever way. Especially since they're better characters than anybody in this game, sad to say. If Revan had been a force ghost who spoke to the Jedi Knight as he was hunting the emperor--that would have been a cool use of Revan. If HK-47 wanted to assassinate the emperor, and you ran into him here and there, that would have been a cool use of HK. Even if HK got killed while trying to assassinate the emperor, say, helping the JK do so, it'd be an honorable way for HK to go out. Killing HK-47--twice?--was on nobody's wishlish. I think it's the single worst way you could have even conceivably used everybody's favorite character. That's why the Foundry is so spectacularly tone-deaf. Especially Imperial players *like* that assassin droid. Whoever said "Revan will help you on a future raid fighting the super-Emperor" has the right idea. Even if he's a force ghost. If HK-47 was there help "assassinate the emperor," that'd be cool too. It makes sense he'd want to assassinate him. Keep Revan dead, bring him back as a force ghost--bring HK-47 back in the flesh (one of the story quests could have you re-build him,) ultimately to help players do the ultimate raid against the emperor.

Quickly: describe the subtle differences in characterization between Qui-Jonn Jinn, Mace Windu and your Jedi character from this game: go! You can't do it. People saying they like the other stories might just like the other *characters*. The story itself is ostensibly the most epic of any class. The Jedi characters are also the most boring of any class--remember how boring and interchangeable the Jedis were in the prequels? They are actually somewhat worse in this. Humorless, emotionless, and even lacking wisdom (they don't know *anything* about life or the force you didn't know after watching "Empire Strikes Back"--to be "wise" you need to say something wise.) The characters have no history--no perspective. Partially because it's an MMO. You never feel like Luke Skywalker because you see no transformation--you arrive into the game like Luke in "Return of the Jedi," "wise" and dull. With Luke, it sorta worked because we'd watch him grow. He had an arc. Jedis in this have no arc. Will you enjoy the dialogues? Will you enjoy your Jedi? With the way this game is written, I found it much more fun to just be an evil Sith, since at least it was fun in a "Hitman" or "Grand Theft Auto" way.

<they are not nearly as one-dimensional as most Sith stories.> I'm not saying the Sith stories aren't a bit one-dimensional. The Sith are obviously all insane. One of the best storytelling aspects to this game is the portrayal of an empire that will collapse under its own Roman lunacy and in-fighting. You kill more Sith as a Sith than a Jedi! Still, I've played my Sith as total villains--but those are the only stories that hooked me thus far. I'm playing my Jedi Knight half out of obligation, mainly because I do respect the "good" and want to take out the final boss. You might be "Luke Skywalker" in theory, but Luke was a character before he came "of age." You start TOR as a fully-formed Jedi with no history. Bioware and Obsidian solved the "boring jedi" problem that helped ruin the prequels pretty amazingly in KOTOR 1 and 2. How? Specificity (you are Revan and the Exile, not anyman with any personal history,) human relationships with your companions, conflict, and an arc where choosing light or dark side both made a kind of sense for that character. Instead of more specificity and unique characterization for your Jedi in their massive storytelling endeavor, they went for less. "Helping others is both a duty and an honor." The arc of becoming a "great jedi" feels like no arc at all, since your character starts as a jedi and doesn't seem to change.

The empire side is mainly fun in a "Hitman," "Grand Theft Auto" kind of way. The Jedis are just boring as a main character archetype. Evil characters want something--glory or money or pure evil, but at least they have motivation. An emotionless monk doesn't want anything or change as a character, he has no inner conflict or even potential arc. He doesn't learn anything. Jedis are bland. Think about "change," "conflict" and an "arc" in reference to Revan or KOTOR 2--yeah, big difference. Evil is preferable when "good" is sheer storytelling sleeping pills. Lucas certainly ran into this problem on the prequels--once you take your "wise old man" and turn him into a main character, it's probably storytelling disaster, automatically. He's no longer wise or old--he's just there. I couldn't bring myself to go dark side in KOTOR because of the quality of the storytelling. You actually feel like you're betraying your companions and everything you've fought for. You feel like you're betraying your mythological arc of redemption. TOR ain't got no arcs except "rise to power" in the empire stories.

We avoided this mob but the rest of the heroic was doable with a borderline incompetent group ("ATTACK THE GUY WITH THE TARGET ON HIS HEAD" I said several times, and nobody listened.) Whoever designed the heroics definitely has a "difficult first mob" fetish of some kind. The game balance favors CCs for these kinds of heroics--with one or two CCs and fast focus firing on the strongs, the mob's DPS drops fast. Emperor Palpatine shows you how it's done (kills weaks, then strong, then elite):

"Immortal" is beastly in your 40s. That's when it all comes together. You have 15 seconds of crippling stuns to brutalize everyone but champions (and even some champions) while you and your companions or friends wail away on them.

It's fun to be evil in video games, but the game goes above and beyond by making the jedis proactively boring. The most recent cinematic incarnation of emotionless Spock at least focused on the turmoil of keeping his emotions suppressed--usually Spock is interesting because he's intelligent. Jedis just spout cartoon hero platitudes, in this. The player characters aren't notably "wise" or even intelligent. It's like in the Phantom Menace review video where Qui-Gonn Jinn and Obi-wan's heads are replaced with tablets of Ambien. They're boring. George Lucas didn't make Jedi protagonists any more interesting--basically you play as Mace Windu in this, just a dull monkish character.

I was one of the original complainers about Valis murdering my poor, original Jedi Sentinel repeatedly, and feeling impossible. Just beat him at 24 with my new Jedi Guardian, first try, after having played this game a whole lot. He killed Kira, he almost killed me. The "impossibility" is gear-derived, not skill-based. You're not level 24, if your gear isn't excellent. Think of yourself as much lower level, if you're not a gear enthusiast. I didn't interrupt him once, or use force stasis, or "call on the force." All those things help, of course. It's gear--*most* people I see on my level are literally 2,000 hitpoints behind me. I have ~6,000 hitpoints, they have ~4,000. Those stats are certainly reflected in offensive capability (strength) too. I've played this game with so many alts now the gearing system is obvious to me, I buy implants the second they're available (level 19 or 21). I buy gear for my companions (good luck if you're using T7.) People who are 1)broke for whatever reason, 2)on servers with inactive GTNs are at a disadvantage, no doubt. If I have 2,000 more hitpoints than you, I think it's fair to say I am operating at level 28 and you are at level 18. Undergeared, you're just not at the same level. You're not fighting Valis at "level 24," you're at level 18 or worse, if you or your companion have no implants or earpiece. This has been said repeatedly, but yes, he's beatable, and gear. You're not level 24 yet, even if you're level 27.

<Either you haven't tried the other classes at all, are an elitist that can't admit there is a problem, or both.> I've tried all the other classes extensively -- I liked Sith Juggernaut so much I decided to do a Guardian. I'm going to use Kira the entire game until I pull in a friend for you-know-who, which is how I ran my Jugg (DPS apprentice.) I assume since nobody responded to my above point about using companions properly, you probably failed to do so the entire game and had a difficult time with Guardian. That's kind of Bioware's fault, I guess. I would never have used a healer companion since it's so boring--I tried it for 5 minutes and couldn't stand it. Admittedly troopers and BH's can use a healer since they can "mortar volley" and AoE every other trash mob, speeding things up. I have a trooper and know how it goes. My tank-specced Juggernaut + DPS companions died less than my other characters, including agent, trooper and sentinel. Why? It's the single best class in the game for taking on elites and strongs, the only PvE enemies that should ever kill you. Maybe a healer character + companion is just as effectively unkillable, but healing your companion while they kill your nemesis isn't quite as fun, even if it's as foolproof. Did you read/apply what I say above about using companions properly yet? If you hit 50, I feel bad. It's not a trivial point. Once you use your companion right (drawing aggro first,) it's the main appeal of the class. You control the battle and gain the advantages of a companion meatshield, while maintaining maximum DPS the entire time. If you're rushing in and drawing all aggro with your threat buff, you're turning your advantage into your disadvantage. It's not complex, conceptually--but leaping into battles like normal, or even trying to tank to "protect" your companion like you're on a heroic is the exact wrong thing to do, and makes you weaker than other class/companion combos. If you're playing like this, a healer must seem like a godsend. A slow, boring godsend. As a tank you inherently mitigate damage better, but you're still TAKING ALL THE DAMAGE by default (if you leap in thoughtlessly,) meaning you're weaker than a trooper + a DPS companion, all in all. At least a trooper's DPS companion takes some aggro. When your companion draws initial aggro (control + 1 by default,) you can taunt it off them or attack it off gradually, at any time--meaning you can taunt it off them when they're at 10% health--and it's almost foolproof. You completely control the ebb of battle while maintain full you+companion DPS the entire engagement. It's the difference between dying more often and "needing" a healer, since you've halved your effective health / being much more powerful and versatile than other classes (playing with a bit of easily-grasped strategy.)

On the "L2P" issue: you guys are aware of how single-player tanking should work with DPS companions? You have to order your companion to attack first to draw all/half aggro, otherwise you draw it all in tank form (which generates more threat.) Then you taunt it off your companion in the middle of the battle. Trooper and BH tanks can use healer Mako the whole game since "death from above" and "mortar volley" make burning down trash mobs fairly fast. Melee tanks will be slowed down to boringness using a healer. Elites are designed to take you down to the wire--you will have a profound disadvantage if your DPS companion is not taking some of the hits. Your companion should always attack an elite first. If you + companion have 12,000 hitpoints, it's the different between the buck stopping at 6,000 hitpoints (+60% armor buff in tank form) and 12,000 hitpoints. Your pool of health basically increases 33%-50% when you order your companion to attack first, which can be the difference between "easy" and "hard," obviously.

I leveled a Sith Juggernaut (guardian) in immortal spec, and it's not hard. You don't need a healer companion. That actually would slow you down, notably. I never used one. With a DPS you can burn down trash fairly fast. Just not as fast as "Mortar Volley." And when the trash is down, you do better against strongs and elites (the only enemies with any chance of ever killing you, basically.) Running a trooper with a healer through trash would be twice as fast, admittedly, just because of "Mortar Volley." By the end of "immortal" spec my tank could take on elites and strongs better than any other class. And I've played the other classes substantially. I'm not calling anybody wrong because my focus-specced sentinel is the only class I've ever had difficulty problems with--for all I know some of the melee specs really are busted and broken. My sentinel focus spec spends a lot of talent points increasing the output of my AoE, which basically made it equivalent to...mortar volley, which troopers need invest 0 talent points into. But with my juggernaut, I recall feeling beastly even in mid-game--and I've leveled a sorc and trooper fairly high. "Death from Above" and "Mortar Volley" are the ultimate trash mob killers--scoundrel and agent have some fairly awesome options with burning down trash, too. Play heroics or fight an elite (you know, the enemies that might actually kill you) and you might not even use your AoEs. A slightly underleveled trooper might feel less frustration with the fact they can always burn down trash, which is maybe what people mean by melee being "gear-dependent."

For some reason the game-changers in Jugg tank utility are all on and above the "backhand" row of the "Immortal" tree. http://www.torhead.com/skill-calc#101srbszrrkuRZhMMZM.1 "Force charge" stuns the target--including elites--for 2 seconds. You get 2 seconds for a free attack. "Force push" resets force charge. They go flying. Might as well "force charge" again, which stuns again. You get 2 seconds for a free attack. "Backhand" stuns the target for 4 seconds. Enough time for a full ravage. "Force Choke" no longer needs to be channeled, meaning you can hit the target while they're stunned and choking, or pommel strike for high damage. "Force scream" creates a mini-static barrier which absorbs all incoming damage, nice way to end your series of stunning attacks. This is all stuff you use on every single elite or human player, pretty much-- With all powers being available, you can start every fight with 12 seconds of enemies being stunned and useless and getting wailed on, and then watch them uselessly fight back afterwards as you're encased in defensive buffs.

The Sith Warrior has one of the best stories. Every planet usually has a unique objective (as opposed to "gather this planet's mcguffin" structure of other classes.) Chapter 1 is evil in a fun way and Darth Baras is one of the best Sith Lords in the game. The end is a bit too predictable to be exciting, though (I just beat the story yesterday.) That said, the writing generally isn't as good as more focused Bioware and Obsidian efforts--it lacks the depth (and I don't mean word-count.) It's partly the MMO structure, but mostly they probably spread their talent too thin, with so many stories--and the fact the Bioware A-team works on Mass Effect. Jedis are uninspired and monkish cartoon heroes, Sith are mustache-twirling psychopaths--they didn't go beyond these basics too often. They had to pull in a ton of writers to do the stories and most of them couldn't craft scenarios and dialogues and conversations that would evoke role-playing "fun" nearly as often as Bioware can in 30 hour single-player RPGs. Plot momentum is additionally much more diffused and spread out, so it's hard to get stoked about developments. Momentum tends to taper off into nothingness. The fact companions require gift-grinding just to speak to you means most players won't get much out of most of their companions.

I misread, the one reduce cooldown power you've neglected in the tanking tree lowers the cooldown on "threatening scream" and "force push." Force push can actually be an irritant to melee groups (or potentially a disaster if you push into another mob,) but with a force charge follow-up it stuns for two seconds, evening it out. I'm fairly competent with its usage and I hit it the second it comes off cooldown. "Threatening scream" is the group taunt, which can be integral to group play. The other "reduce cooldown" on the right tree is "force choke" and "ravage"--"choke" is another one you hit the second it's off cooldown, and it's always nice to have "ravage" ready. All these powers are next to useless against champions. But increased accuracy and "retaliation" talents seem more useless to me, generally speaking.

I like that Jaesa pulls half the aggro (vs. Vette.) On those occasions where Jaesa goes down, obviously something's gone wrong--but it's better than me going down. It's nice to have a companion alive and putting out DPS--it's nicer to have a companion putting out DPS and taking some hits too. Usually you can toss out a "threatening scream" if Jaesa's low on health and pull the aggro right at the end. This is almost foolproof if you're quick on the draw--which means Jaesa's taking heat off you is nothing but good. Me and Jaesa could solo two on-level elites, much of our game (elite eliteness does vary, of course.) Defensive buffs / Jugg stuns work wonders. To me, selectively using Jaesa to take aggro > Quinn / Vette.

Yeah I used Jaesa exclusively, after I committed to her gear. No problems. Vette could do just as well as Jaesa, I wager, but I wanted to use my apprentice. Even though you're the tank (*because* you're the tank, and it's single-player, and your companion can die but you can't,) you want to get into a rhythm where you order Jaesa to jump in first and pull some aggro. Then you can selectively taunt it off her or not. This is mainly relevant for the tougher fights. Your taunts should only be used when Jaesa's at 20-40% health, and she's taken her hits for the team. Taking all aggro (to "protect" your companion who might as well die as live every pull) is dumb--anybody who says they "need" a healer in immortal spec just isn't familiar with how to use the companion dynamic to their advantage. The game doesn't really get harder, either, if you keep upgrading gear. If anything once you hit the "backhand" tree in "immortal" you might begin to feel overpowered (elites and strongs can be slapped and stunned and choked and pushed and manhandled.)