I'd like to say human as well mainly because of Zath. I just can't get on board with the pureblood slave either, even though people have provided convincing explanations as to how it could happen.

If I am running with a well meaning newbie tank, who is still learning (or we lack a tank) I will gladly focus 100% on healing. If I am in unfamiliar content, or running more difficult content I will focus 100% on healing. If, on the other hand, the tank is really good or the group as a whole is easy to keep up I'll probably DPS. Instances like Esseles I will act primarily as a DPS and heal as we're heading towards the next pull. More than that isn't really necessary, and I want to have fun and not just stand there. In some cases, when the tank or DPS aren't doing their jobs I may DPS to keep mobs off of myself, or throw out some damage in between heals to help us make an enrage timer. For the most part, I know what I am capable of, and I know the flashpoints and some of the ops really well. After the first couple pulls I'll have a general idea what the tank and DPS are capable of as well. Once you got that down it's fairly easy to anticipate incoming damage and to heal or DPS accordingly. I couldn't do this when I new, but there is no reason why I can't or shouldn't now. Have a little faith in your healers, often we know what we're doing.

Yeah, I kind of figured that'd be the case. Couldn't hurt to ask though.

I often do this on my smuggler so I might get the mirror moves wrong, but what I find works for me is to build up my TA before the fight with slow release medpacks/underworld medicine. Drop into stealth, and open from behind with a shoot first/back blast, then I usually drop orbital strike ' and chip away at his health with shiv (blaster whip?), the basic attack and by reapplying corrosive dart. Generally the only healing I'll do for this one is reapplying our HoT, and Emergency medpack. Between the HoT, and Shiv, you shouldn't have a problem with being low on TA, so I try to keep those at 2 stacks so I don't waste one. I don't normally use Recuperative Nanotech on this one since I once saw an operative repeatedly whipe our group on SM by using it. Admittedly the rest of the party could have stayed in one place, but the attack isn't really required. On a related note, I do find this one irritating since I can't stun to use back blast. Does anyone know if disappearing act will restart combat? I kind of just assumed that it would, but haven't actually tried it out myself...

Oh! I've never seen that one before! I may have to try suggesting it next time I'm with a marauder/sent that having trouble. Thanks for the tip!

LI HM will drop rakata chest, HM Kraggas palace, and Eternity Vault, and sm Denova and Terror Drom beyond all drop rakata pieces. None of these are in the group finder however, except for Lost Island Hm, so you'll need to get a group together for the runs! I'd recommend trying them SM first as well, just to get the mechanics down.

Honestly, a bad healer can make nearly any fight next to impossible, but this one isn't very healing intensive at all as long as everyone is doing what they are supposed to (e.g. Staying behind the boss, moving the lightning, interrupting incinerate). Most of the wipes I see on this fight are due to dps dropping lightning balls on the tank, and the tank not knowing how to compensate and start kiting. While kiting, I've also seen a dps drop lighting infront of the tank, and trapping the group. Really the only issues a healer might be having for this fight are Los problems, or incinerate being left too long and hitting the melees as well. I don't know about commandos and sages, but a smugglers cleanse is on a 6 second cool down, so if three people are hit by incinerate, the healer is going to have a rough time. The soft enrage on this one can be damn near impossible to deal with as wel unless you have a well coordinated group, but in my experience, a well coordinated group doesn't usually hit the enrage timer.

Operatives are very nice to play for the abilities listed above. Something to consider too, is that while we don't have heavy armour like Mercs we do have some decent tools to up our survivability including a 3second dodge, defensive screen (not the best but it costs no energy), a single target stun, a group stun, out of combat cc, droid cc that can be used in combat, and an ability that'll let you drop from the fight. Use these properly and you'll be walking away from almost anything.

Thanks for the advice guys. Most of this I do or try to do, but I think that I end up getting overwhelmed and mess up somewhere on the basics. Hopefully next time I give it a shot I'll be able to record the fight so I can really see where I'm going wrong!

Gear shouldn't be an issue especially for EV and KP, but mechanics and finding a group might be a little more difficult. Most ec hm pug groups would be hesitant to bring in a member who doesn't know the basics to the flashpoint especially if they are unsure of the person's pve experience. If you're unsure about jumping strait into the hard modes, I'd definitely recommend trying the story modes first. They're pretty easy, and you might be able to meet some people who will be able to take you through the harder runs. Just try to follow directions and observe properer operations etiquette. I don't know much about how much pve you've done, but a few hm flash points can help ya get the knack for it too.

I thought that the canonized ls/ds choices was just speculation. Though I do remember hearing about that before, I can't remember what was actually said. Do you have a link to an interview or anything?

Not sure if this is in the right place or not, but I could really use some advice from a few scoundrel healers. I've recently started to attempt TFB hm with my scoundrel and have been having a difficult time with healing through the dread guard. Particularly I seem to be having energy management issues and often dig myself into a hole as early as the lightning attacks in phase 1. I know that strategies will differ depending on group makeup (my healing partner is usually a sage), but does anyone have any good tips or general strategies for getting through this fight?

I don't think that getting stuck is the op's fault. It happens, and if they haven't done it before they don't know the exact right places to go to skip. Really if the group decides that they are going skip everything they should at leat have the courtesy to stick with the new guy so if trash is pulled it can be dealt with easily and not while everyone is spread out. Plus the person could have done T5 a hundred times before trying it as a hm and not know how to skip through everything, so saying that it's the player's responsibility to know how to do this is a little cold. I dunno why tionese gear wouldn't be good enough ei ther. Especially since it is my understanding that their set bonus is kind of useless (I could be wrong on that one though). Just don't que for LI HM with only tionese without knowing what you're doing and it shouldn't be an issue.

I may have misunderstood your post, and that Mara sounds like a bit of a jerk for insulting you unprovoked, but in my experience the is no unspoken rule that you pass on items not of your class. You need on it if it is an upgrade, greed on it if you want it for any other reason , and pass if you don't. I don't think that the Mara did anything wrong in claiming it though a greed roll when you passed on your opportunity to roll for it. Had he been pressing need for everything it would be a different situation however.

I prefer healing personally. I feel that when I'm tanking too many variables are left in the healers hand, and I don't like like having to rely on someone else to keep me up, or having so little control. xD I mean realistically you can get through most hm fps without a proper tank, it's a lot harder without a proper healer. Tanking you tend to really need to know the fight mechanics though. I find when I'm healing I only know the basics (like when to cleanse , and don't stand here) and have an idea of the flow of the fight (when will there be a lot of aoe damage, when will I focus heal, is the tank going to take heavy but spaced out damage, or more consistent damage,etc), but know very little about the fight details unless it effects my job. I do find that healers need to be more aware of the abilities of other healing classes when doing ops however. Kinda helps avoid panic when a sage healer is regenerating force for instance. Tanks really control the flow of the group too. They really decide if there is a wait between pulls or if we just plow right through everything. The rest of the group is kinda just along for the ride. From my own experience tanking seems to rely more on following a solid rotation. whereas healing is a little more situational. This could have a lot to do with what classes I'm playing though, so I don't really know. In the end I think that it depends on your personal preference. I have an Assassin tank and a Scoundrel healer. When I tank, I tend to get really stressed out, whereas when my boyfriend tanks he is normally watching a movie on a second monitor. Little punk... Also, what are you talking about?! Agents are absolutely built for tanking! I do it on my scoundrel all the time! Drives our guild vanguard nuts for whatever reason...

I feel like I may get shot for saying this, but so far my favorite was the Sith Inquisitor. The whole 'rise to power' story line was one that I really liked. It felt like it had a natural flow, and the whole thread of freedom tied the story together very nicely. Plus despite the magnitude of the end, I felt that the story was more personal. You weren't trying to save the galaxy, just yourself. Agent was crazy fun. Felt like I was dropped strait into a Bond movie. Plus it was nice being able to choose some DS options without feeling like a total psychopath. Smuggler was nice for Act 1. I really felt invested in finding my ship. It wasn't as enjoyable afterwards, though I think that the smuggler had the best dialogue in game. Consular was okay for the first chapter, but chapter two and three felt so disconnected that it might as well have been a different class story.

It really sucks that you had a bad experience like that, but there are many awesome and helpful players out there that you can meet in pugs. If that guild had a problem with your gear, they should have told you so right off the bat and not once you had gotten to the final boss. Weather or not tionese gear is good enough really depends on the player, how used to their class they are and how well they know the fights. Those bosses can be very mechanics heavy so if new players are focusing on doing everything right, they may not be dpsing at their best. I was running it last week with a tank in full tionese/recruit gear. She knew what she was doing and was a breeze to keep up for the most part, but we were having an aweful time downing the bosses before they enraged. The DPS in that group had a mix of tionese to black hole gear. Everyone seemed good for the mechanics, and I think with a few more BH or Rakata pieces we would have had an easier time, though it's hard to say. At he same time, I remember one memorable pug group where a well geared sent ended up dropping and we replaced him with a slinger with lvl 35 green pieces and tionese who had never done it before. The other DPS was a shadow with a columi/bh mix. We got up to Lorrick with no problem. Admittedly we died several times on Lorrick, but ended up downing him. Honestly I didn't think that we could, but the shadow had enough confidence in their skills that they could make up for sub-par gear on a good player.

Consular: Female, Sage though I can't comment much about race; they all seem fitting. I tried playing my first one as a DS Shadow and she came off as bat **** crazy, so LS feels a lot more natural. Smuggler: I get the impression that this one was supposed to he male. Especially if it were based of Han Solo, but my female Twi'lek seems to fit the roll really well. She's lightside for the mos part with a few practical dark side options thrown in. A smuggler should be at least a little street savvy. Imperial Agent: Chiss female for me, though this one seems like gender doesn't really matter, but really an agent should feel vague! She's pretty even with DS/LS options and stared off very pro-empire. Although that changed the further I got in the story. Sith Inquisitor: My favourite toon. A human assassin. She's body type 1 since I wanted to play a little blond girl who can shoot lightning out of her fingers Inthink most of the races with he exception of a pureblood would work nicely here though. Oddly enough she's more light side than any of my other toons (figured that as a timer slave she might have a soft spot for the beat down masses), but isn't above shocking/offing people she doesn't like. Really liked the romance option for the SI too. It felt less forced an more like a natural progression. Sith Warrior: My only male toon. I made him a Pure blood. He's BT 2 because "if I'm looking at an *** for hours on end it might as well be a nice one." Honestly I made him for the sole purpose of romancing Vette xD. He's played neutral, with a strong sense of honor and "warriors pride."

There are a few options available for you Sage/Sorc, commando/Mercenary, or scoundral/operative. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Sages for instance really excell at aoes. I play a scoundrel healer, and love how mobile they are. They can really be a blast in pvp because of that. Plus stealth is pretty for skipping a lot of trash, and you have access to some nice ccs which make soloing heroics fairly easy if you can't find a group. Don't get frustrated while leveling either. I think that some healing classes become more viable earlier on while some don't start to shine until later. The best bit of advice I can give you though, is to keep your tank companion's armor up to date. If they have decent gear, you can kind of plow through everything. >

I get what you're saying Keyboardninja. I enjoy running most of these flashpoints, but TV or illum are so dissapointing when they pop. I wouldn't ever ask a group to complete it if all three want to skip, but if one other person wants to run it properly I'm game. Of course it's not like you can't run TV withought a healer, and you only need two votes to be kicked even if half the group wants to do it, so this can end poorly. I can only imagine how much it would suck for a DPS who actually wants to do the run and spent all that time in the Que..

Ereiniel, I really like how you linked your character through their companions. The story itself was wonderful; the transition from the relaxed, semi-happy atmosphere to the tension at the middle and the bittersweet end was very well done. Good move on getting Corso out of the room before anything about Sith were mentioned. I can only imagine him stealing the focus away from a great family moment. I really hope the two of them make up xD Plus there is so little SI related stuff. It was refreshing seeing some different characters!

This is true. Group make up will have a lot to do with it, but a recruit tank isn't necessarily a death sentence.

Nobody is blacklisting you from anything. I'm part of a small group too, and I pug with members of the guild or freelance solo. The lack lack of a LFG option for harder ops has never hindered me from answering or starting a search in general, and it shouldn't be stopping you either. The difference between a LFG tool group and what we have now is that there is at least some organization this way. People know what to expect, and have a general idea of what the group can handle. A few players are undergeared? No problem if there are a few on the opposite end of the spectrum. A couple players haven't been there before, or have only gotten past the first boss? Again no problem. If only one guy knows the fights however, it doesn't matter how well geared you all are, you're probably in for a long night. That said, a game wide chat would probably help along the LFG process.

Tionese/Recruite is fine for a tank for LI as long as he knows what he's doing (Though that first mini boss can be way more frantic than it should be). I'm more sick of getting DPS in recruit gear, and constantly hitting enrage timers. I makes me want to pull out my hair. =___= Haven't had the misfortune of getting a tank in cunning gear yet though it's probably coming. There will always be bad players, and I'm guessing that this current influx will settle down a bit once people get some more experience. Personally I'm kind of enjoying the challenge HMs have become.

People might have been having a problem with players queuing as healer and DPS (especially in sm when it's not as important), when they're not specced for it. I don't really know though. Honestly, my main is a scoundral healer and I DPS while healing to keep things interesting. I've done LI runs where I needed to contribute a bit because we kept hitting rage timers. Plus a little extra DPS on mobs isn't usually a problem. Especially since as an operative you can heal the group while moving. As long as you aren't letting your teammates go down I don't see the issue. Just be careful that groups don't mistakenly kick you for being a DPS.