I think there are a few cons against it. The main being, as said before, that people would suicide to reset their cc-breaker, and it would in turn punish those who try to stay alive. It might also introduce a new class imbalance, favoring the classes that does not rely much on CC. Operatives and sorcs, for instance, use their CC as a survival tool to give them time to heal or run away, and would loose this edge. It would also make it more difficult to take out a healer combination. Right now CC is one of the ways to manage one healer, while you take out his compadres - and that is already difficult (especially if you add guard and taunts to the mix). I am not dead set against the idea, just trying to weigh in with the cons.

Yeah, I speak from experience and not how it is done in other games. But test it out for yourself, by teaming up with a mate and check how your lockouts change.

In normal mode operations, there is currently no way of assigning loot. Once you go hard and nightmare mode, you get the same system that works in flashpoints, where everyone can roll for every item - or it can be assigned by a master looter. Come 1.2 they will change it, so that normal mode (or story mode as they are being named) operations use the same system as hard/nightmare and flashpoints. My source for this information is here, so a vague disclaimer in case the information is incorrect.

Lockouts are individual. So if the other 7 people find a replacement for you, then they can still give the final boss a go. But if you join the team, then your lockout will set the standard and consider the final boss to be killed already - for the entire ops (until you leave).

If you only did half, then you can finish off the last of the bosses before reset. The operation will measure progress from the member who has gone furthest in the instance, so just make sure you bring the same people - or others who are not locked out from the last bosses. All weeklies reset tuesday at 12PM GMT, including operations. That doesn't change, no matter if you killed all, some or nothing - or if you killed them tuesday afternoon or monday night. Finally, hard and nightmare modes share a lockout. But you can do a normal run, go out and straight back in to a hard/nightmare run.

To the last question first. No, there are no level 49-50 missions above bountiful, unless you count the one-time missions that you can buy/find. The only exception to this is gift missions, which can be rich (underworld trading also has 1 rich mission, but that is a misprint). The missions are available to you, not your companions. You will see the same missions no matter which companion you open the mission window with. I think the mission quality is pure random, so sometimes you have 2 bountiful and at other times there are only moderates. The number of missions is fixed for each skill (and skill level, but irrelevant if you are already 400), subtracting any companions you already have running. Missions reset when you change location, or when you complete another mission. So if you are hunting for specific bountifuls, you can either jump in and out of your ship - or complete some quick rank 1 missions to reset the list. Hope that helps.

You need rank 60 for the battlemaster gear. But you can buy centurion and champion gear, regardless of your valor level. The 3 levels are tiers, where each set of gear is slightly better than the previous. The set bonuses are identical, and allow you to mix and match tiers and still get the bonus. The easiest way (for now) is to do PvP, especially the dailies and weeklies. There you get champion bags, which gives you champion and centurion commendations to buy gear at the respective vendors. The merc and warzone commendations is, I think, from the attempt to get people to do both open world PvP (merc) and warzones. You can exchange one for the other at the ratio of 3:1, so even if you just do warzones - you can still spend these extra commendations for an extra champ bag, a vehicle or medkits and stimulants. 1.2 will change everything, but the gear you already have should still be viable. So if you enjoy PvP, there is no reason to hold it off until 1.2 comes out.

The patchnotes for 1.2 has started a avalanche of complaints. Everyone is frustrated that their class is being nerfed, and either threaten to quit or spell doomsday for the class. It might be that Bioware missed the ball on this one, or it might be that they actually find a new balance that works better. Since every class is being smacked with the nerfbat, it makes little sense to only look at your class to speculate how it might hurt the game. Most of the posts, based on only the patchnotes, seem to narrow their focus on the effect for one class, and let the rest stay equal to how it is now. And then the nerfs might seems stupid or unreasonable. But when the dps is being nerfed - the healing nerf might not hit as hard. When the healing is being reduced, then perhaps a trio of healers is less terrifying. I, for one, don't mind that both healing and damage is being reduced, so that fights aren't determined by a few signature moves. My guess is that Bioware want to drag out the fights a bit longer, so that they are not resolved by push-jump-strangle-smash, tracer*3-railshot-heatseeker or backstab-stab-stun-coup de grace (simplified, but you get the point). I suspect that this is also what lead many of us to scream overpowered - because there is often little we can do against a flawless execution, with a few lucky crits. But changing this dynamic requires everything to be retoned, or healing will become overpowered, defensive skills useless or something else is out of balance. And it will of course reflect on PvE, which then have to be adjusted accordingly. I also think some of these issues become more relevant, as Bioware is changing other aspects of the game. The crafting upgrades alone will mean that extra stats will make already powerfull attacks even more powerfull - and a new tier of gear to strip or use might scale badly with the current formulas. The duel spec (depending on how it is implemented) allows us to quickly swap to healer or dps, depending on the groups weak points etc. So my suggestion is that we see how it works, before we cry nerf.

Sorcs already have an instant heal with Static Barrier.

Having read this thread, I am starting to think that the PvP system has merit. The seperation between winning a match for dailies and getting medals/commendations for contribution, and being able to use either or both to purchase your gear, means that people quitting doesn't spoil everything for those left behind. You might inevitably loose the match, but then you can go for medals instead, and still get something out of staying. I think we shoot ourselves in the foot by demanding that bioware introduce everything to cater to our particular taste. It means they have to spend manpower on creating insurance against bad players, rather than introducing new content to satisfy all players. The problem can be solved by us, by registering as groups - or teaching each other. If you hate the many quitters, then take notice of who doesn't quit and form a group with them - or even just a channel to communicate when to sign up. Likewise, if you give up easily - you might find it usefull to team up with players you trust to do their best, and not be burdened by all the green gears, newbies and horror players. And often a bit of polite conversation can resolve many issues. Teach the players to form a conga line from the hutball spawn to the endline and grab a few quick wins. When they learn to counter your moves, cluster up and focus them down one by one, while steadily moving towards your goal. And so on and so forth. In other words, take charge. Rather than just give up and blame the game for not giving you exactly what you want. Suddenly you have a server full of skilled players, with decent gear and the issue becomes moot. And encourage this by giving MVP's to people who take charge. Not the nerfherder who stand in one spot and bark orders and insults - but the one who actually makes your team coordination better. Pass leadership to whoever is good at it, so he/she can put markers and give comments to improve your play. There will still be those who feel entitled by the 15 buck contribution to play a cooperative game as their personal universe. Either they learn to cooperate when they become the weak link, or they leave as they are entitled to do.