Most of it is pretty much what I expected, but restricting stuff like showing your legacy name, not allowing helmet hiding or color unifying, little things like that, those are head scratching decisions to me. The amount of squeezing-blood-from-a-stone ill will created by charging for that kind of thing vs the amount of people who will pay for them doesn't seem like a winning ratio. Maybe it'd be less so if preferred players got a few more of those little things or they put in a knick-knacks sort of combo pack of small conveniences at a discount, like phone companies do to common services. As for quick bar slots, two is the minimum necessary to play the game without being hamstrung. Three for free would be nice and is possibly necessary for PvP, but then again F2P is designed to skirt the edge of playable vs. annoying. Four and up IMO is convenience for most players.

You are falling into the gambler's fallacy. Yes, the average is expected to come out to 1 in 5 as the sample gets very large (as in, the limit approaching infinity), but each individual attempt is always 20%. When looking at probability for independent events, what already happened doesn't matter. There is no corrective force that says that because you failed 20 times, the 21st time has to succeed because you're not getting a 1 in 5 average for your actual attempts. Your next RE is still a 20% chance to succeed. To put it another way, if you said you should expect around 200 successful REs out of your next 1000 tries, that'd be reasonable. If you've done 999 REs and failed and you expect your next attempt to be anything but a 20% chance at success, you'd be wrong. (And probably cursed.)

Yes, your conversation progression is gated by your class quests as well as affection. Kira from my Jedi Guardian didn't talk to me for the longest time, but as soon as Act 2 started the floodgates opened and she suddenly wanted to talk for days and then get it on. (YMMV)

"What is it with you? It's always kill, kill, kill. Can't we settle this with an insult contest? I'll even let you go first."

Nah, I'd still go for Risha as done by Tara. Ms. Wilson's voice is pretty, but it's too smooth for Risha. I like the gravelly delivery and the lilt. It's like an older, sassier version of Raven from Teen Titans (also Tara), and IMO it's super-sexy. Whenever she says, "Missed me?" I'm like, "Hell yes, I should unsummon you so you can say that again."

Late in the Risha romance:

Hate it. All my companions sound wrong after patch 1.2, plus a lot of it makes no sense, as visors and headbands are changing my character voices. (I imagine they're all torturous-looking mouthpieces on the Imperial side or something.) Plus, given that alien characters like Bowdaar and Guss have no visual helmet element, it's hella confusing, and I thought all my companions were bugged for a while. Wookiee roars with any sort of distortion sound terrible. Y'know what, how 'bout an option to turn off companion helmets being shown while we're at it? I'd rather see faces anyway.

I'd suggest learning how to use Focused Defense, however "stupid" it is, because I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for BioWare to revive Protector. It's pretty clear they wanted to break the hybrid hopping cycle.

Perseverence is not as good as it looks. If you look closer at how much of your Strength applies to your skills, you only get roughly 20-25% of your Strength added to your attacks. So 6% more Strength is something like a 1.2-1.4% Strength value boost to your damage. IMO you're better off taking Single Saber Mastery and getting a flat 6% boost to your melee.

You're really SOL until you either are significantly over level for the Heroic, or you get your healer companion. Otherwise, you just can't hold off the enemies long enough without dying. And even then, your chances of doing Heroic 4s at anything above a low green level aren't great (but really, what did you expect against a mission that usually needs 4?). If you still want to try, general tactics: 1) Always focus on one enemy at a time. Get your companion to attack the same enemy as you by using Ctrl-1. 2) Kill the weakest enemies first. Reducing the body count is your best chance at survival, and the adds typically do more damage than they can take. Particularly focus on any mob that attempts to heal. 3) Keep your companion alive, obviously. 4) Find/craft the best gear for you and your companion. 5) When attacking an enemy, try to move so that you and your companion are attacking from opposite sides, which reduces the chance that splash damage from the enemy will hit both of you. Really, the advice to re-roll on a better populated server for your time zone isn't bad, though, if you're not all that high level. It doesn't get any more crowded at the higher level planets, and heroics are more fun when you take them on with others at the appropriate level.

You should run whichever companion you've geared up the best. Corso and Bowdaar have similar stats and abilities other than the range/melee attack thing, and most of the difference is the quality of gear you give them. After all, the amount of damage you resist is directly dependent on the strength of your armor, and companions are no different. Also turning off their AoE attacks is essential if you use the slice droid and tranq powers regularly.

Alternately, a simpler solution would be bind the ship's left/right to strafe left/right, in addition to turn.

Risha: Never thought I'd say this, but you're my favorite partner in crime. You make beating the odds look easy, Captain. Me: What can I say? I'm inspired by a beautiful woman. Risha: Just so we're clear, I had a snappy comeback for that line--but I'm not using it out of respect.

Me: If Rogun goes down, as far as anyone's concerned, I did it single-handedly. With a spoon. Darmas: Blindfolded and after four shots of Corellian whiskey. Of course. The funniest part of this conversation when you get to it (during Blood Feud) is going through different interludes with your companions at the bar, though. Corso's is boring, but Risha and Akaavi get hit on, Guss can't find a drink he likes, and Bowdaar gets denied, gets angry, and throws the bartender across the room.

The less successful, Get Smart-homage attempt: Lieutenant Palinx: Hey! What are you doing poking around here? Palinx: The only arrival code we've received is for Imperial Starship 2423T6H3L5. Pilot Lieutenant Commander Ina'irolia'kleoni, of the Chiss alliance. Me: I've got two dozen heavily armed mercenaries in that ship, with blaster rifles targeted on you. Let me pass, or I give them the signal. Palinx: You're bluffing. Palinx: Someone like you could never put together that kind of force. Me: Would you believe a dozen mercenaries? An intergalactic bank robber and his idiot savant partner? Vaz Traniff: Oh, for the love of--!

My favorite part is Risha's attempt to play along. Lieutenant Palinx: Hey! What are you doing poking around here? Palinx: The only arrival code we've received is for Imperial Starship 2423T6H3L5. Pilot Lieutenant Commander Ina'irolia'kleoni, of the Chiss alliance. Me: I know I don't look very Chiss. My parents were surprised, too. Palinx: Who are you? This is a Clearance 5 area. Drop your weapons and show your ID, or I shoot! Me: Didn't you get the memo from intel? I'm here to investigate a suspected robbery. You're supposed to play along. Palinx: I don't know... Risha: Come on... would anyone make up that ridiculous story? Palinx: I'll go check in with Command. You wait right here. [turns around] Me: [thwack to the back of the head]

And yet, Protector gave +4% more HP, so 640 HP in your example. So, if you turn on Focused Defense and get hit twice over 10 seconds (and have the extra two Focus to trigger the heals), you have already mitigated more damage than the extra HP Protector would've given you. Heck, if you have Commanding Awe, getting hit once might be enough.

Maybe you just need to grind a level. I've never had to outfit my Scoundrel companions with anything beyond the occasional blue, but I finished most of the quests on every planet, so I never have orange quests, or even yellow half the time. And it's too expensive to equip them all; I picked one tank and one DPS to equip (Corso and Risha), and the other ones are just for crafting. As for Skavak, he's a level 33 elite, and he hits harder than his level. A lot of players have trouble beating him at 31. Heck, there's a certain Elite boss for a Quesh mission that wiped me and Corso, and I was four levels above him. It's not that simple. The more powerful stuff you push down to a lower level, the easier it is for those powers to get sniped in a hybrid, lessening the power of the tree overall for those that choose to specialize. The Scoundrel Sawbones/Scrapper hybrid takes advantage of that very fact, that most of the non-Stealthy powers for Scrappers are on Tier 4 and lower. The Guardian Defense/Vigilance hybrid was considered by many to be better at defense than the full Defense tree, and still might even after they nerfed the build in 1.2 by removing one of its core skills in Vigilance (and that was in Tier 5). You do have a method: Round Two. Not one that happens often, but it's there, and the rate IMO is intentionally slow, so you don't gain UHs as fast as Sawbones can. Sure, full Sawbones may be able to generate UH procs like candy, but they can't use them on any high damage abilities, which is why the hybrid is popular.

I found you don't really need the healer unless you're fighting bosses or doing Heroics solo, myself. Kira does a pretty good job of burning down general enemies. Ozzy's right, though: the key to playing a Defense Guardian is using your interrupts: Force Kick, Force Push, Stasis Mastery, and once you get to level 30, Hilt Strike. You spend just as much time making sure the enemy can't do anything damaging as you do just absorbing damage. You also have to make sure your group doesn't get wasted; use Guard on your companion or a group member, taunt things as necessary, remember to use your two emergency defense powers as needed, Riposte and Blade Storm as often as you can. It's busy being a Guardian tank. You should have an easier time in 1.2. Force Kick no longer costs Focus, Master Strike is stronger, Blade Barrier and Stasis Mastery have moved down a tier so you can get them immediately, and Guardian Slash has had its threat buffed. Later on you can pick up Single Saber Mastery, too.

I don't PvP much, but I swore I saw some posts that said that Master Strike's range for landing the last hit once you start the move is way larger than the apparent melee range. Which makes me wonder: how far can you actually run before the last hit doesn't connect?

Risha isn't evil, she's selfish. She doesn't like hurting people, but she always wants you to get compensation for your work, and she doesn't like it when you stick out your neck for no reason other than to do good. She really has a classic I'm-in-it-for-me smuggler attitude. And, well, she does have a bit of a princess mindset, yes. I find her mouth pretty hilarious when hitting on her, myself. Of course, I also happen to looooove her voice; if you've ever watched Teen Titans, it's the same actress who voices Raven, and you can sort of hear the same guttural lilt.

You say all this as if having hard-to-level skill trees is unheard of. Jedi Knights, for instance, have a hard time leveling as Focus, because the tree is heavily reliant on the 31-point skill, just like Scrappers. It happens. So in the meantime you make do, like dipping into other trees until you get the 31 points to take that last skill. Lifewaster's suggestion isn't just to heal and not to be a Scrapper; if you looked closer at the suggested skills, only one of them relates to healing and the others directly benefit Scrappers. You said you didn't have enough Upper Hands; Exploratory Surgery gives you one when you heal. You said you were dying fast; Exploratory Surgery makes your big heal faster, and Scar Tissue gives you some damage resistance. And Beside Manner gives you more Cunning, which is of course very beneficial to Scrappers. Other suggestions: take Browbeater, avoid Stopping Power for PvE and put those two points into Brawler's Grit. You may want to also not take Fight or Flight for PvE and put that third point into Brawler's Grit. Though if you truly want to stay "pure", you may want to wait for 1.2 to hit. Everyone here gnashes their teeth that Scrappers have been nerfed because of this or that, but for you that's leveling, there's a key change in that they moved the Pugnacity energy bonus down from Underdog to Turn the Tables, so you have access to it at 31. I'm of the opinion that the Sucker Punch changes to be more energy-efficient are for the best, too, but there's certainly disagreement about that. As for Sage, I don't think there's many who would argue that it's a much easier class to play, and frankly having a multi-target 60s stun is ridiculous and not something you should think is the norm. Smugglers do get boned the most by not having a healer until near the end, though. I'm not going to comment on every suggestion, but making Disappearing Act not reset the mobs would be a terrifying thing to balance, because it means you can essentially double your damage against any mob by using it when you're about to die, leaving, healing up, and then coming back at full health. Plus, how would they track this in non-instances? Keep a flag on every mob so it can't heal until you come back, if you ever do? Do they just sit there and stop being available for other players to attack until you're ready? A whole host of problems.

No, actually. Catering to players all the time is a recipe for boredom, because players never want less, nor do they ever all agree. They should be listening to you, but not necessarily doing everything you want, because the game is ultimately their vision. And changing a new power before it even hits live so it's way better than its initial design is probably pretty far down design's list of things to cater to.

It's not a Tuesday thing. The cost resets after a week from your last respec. Problem is, it won't tell you that it's free until after you respec, otherwise you'll be charged and the timer will reset. So if you want to make absolutely sure you won't be charged, jot down the last time you respecced and wait eight days.

I second this idea, though I don't think you can get past Tier 1 in the Sawbones tree and still have Round Two at 31; the best you can do is 5/17/0. The skills past Round Two in the Scrapper tree don't help all that much in solo PvE until you hit Underdog and Flechette Round, so you're possibly better off taking some of those points and putting them into early Sawbones, at least until you get to 40. Exploratory Surgery can be a big help; not only does it help keep Corso alive (a key part of boss battles), but it starts giving you Upper Hands after healing to keep your Pugnacity and Sucker Punches going. Beyond that, in general you want to try to fight as much as possible one-on-one, so tranq and slice everything you can, avoid using your grenades while things are stunned, and turn off AoE on Corso (very important). If you have a boss fight like Skavak where you can't start in stealth, I suggest throwing down a Flash Grenade immediately and take the time to get yourself set up. Also note that the Flash Grenade stun doesn't break until it expires or damage is taken, and that Sabotage Charges don't do any damage until the target is next attacked, and that Vital Shots don't do damage until their first tick. Hmm... Oh, and get to level 32. You get your Defense Screen power then. And make sure Corso's carrying a Shield Generator and is in Guard Stance, that sometimes turns off after a while.