There are no effective differences. I have always wondered why this game is not simply "shells" and mods, with the mods carrying the quality and rating of the item.

I didn't like it =( things that caught my eye: we’re going to extend this Q&A into next week as well "Fair warning: we will use next week's Q&A for marketing of 1.2 again, even though we were cheeky enough to put one purely 1.2-related question in last week's Q&A too." The Neutral Legacy reward will not be coming in Game Update 1.2 I’m afraid, as true grey alignment advancement did not make the cut. No surprises here. I currently don't care about grey alignment, and still love BW and the game, but it is starting to itch that so many core mechanics are so deeply unfinished =( Fear of being left out of core mechanics and perks is keeping me from playing my toons. I would be alright with it if devs were less obscure about design. I've learnt this usually hides big bloopers: see race customizations not being retroactive on existing toons after over 3 months of live game, and no plans to fix this in the near future. We are 100% committed to providing more character slots per server in the future but unfortunately we’re not ready to talk about how that will work "We reserve the right to charge for this". I'm ok with this as a means to control and lighten the toll on their resources. You can use Reverse Engineering on Operations gear but not PvP gear. Battlemaster appearances require Valor even though normal Battlemaster items do not. This is because the recipes to produce Battlemaster appearances do not require PvP activity, while purchasing Battlemaster gear requires PvP commendations. It is not currently possible to trade Bind on Pickup items for Reverse Engineering. Together with an extract of next answer: Reverse engineering an item with mods leads to empty orange equivalents of the end game items. This can be done after the mods are extracted and used in a different item! The item you learn to create is commonly Bind on Equip, as we want to encourage a more lively market on the Galactic Trade Network. Does this mean that endgame appearances are "commonly BoE"? Are these appearances limited to "Story Mode colors"? Yes: that undermines "freedom of choice" for looks =( No: Isn't it kinda biased that you can look like a bad*** raider without raiding, but can't look like a bad*** PvP'er without doing PvP? No, I don't want to take endgame PvE gear looks away from casuals. I don't wanna be special. I just want the pvp people not to be =( We have also heard at the Guild Summit and through community feedback on the Forums that many players have built up a significant stack of custom appearances for future use in their cargo holds and would really like to upgrade these with an augment slot to make them fully competitive as end game gear. We absolutely support this and will be introducing the ability to do so in a future Game Update. I'll hold my breath on this one and hope for them not to redo the way crafting works for this. Apparently "augmented gear is not required, it only puts you above the curve". Not that I like the crafting crits system; I just dislike displays of inconsistency just to please whiners.

My only question is: Will there be a restraining bolt to shut Skadge up in 1.2?

Except you don't, because you're not reaching full potential on any given character otherwise, thus leaving out the full benefits. Each character has five companion slots, which can yield benefits, even if the slot's already been reached on the server. Still you seem to be in a pretty deep rant because you chose to play your sith warrior in a certain manner and that is keeping you from a tiny, non game changing, Presence boost. No degree of correctness in the way you expose your arguments keeps this from being a huge overreaction to something that, for starters, has a math solution: IF PresenceBonus > ROLEPlayingTheToonYouEnjoy => Free Vette IF ROLEPlayingTheToonYouEnjoy > PresenceBonus => Just shut up. /Shoo

Just in case!

This will always happen with set bonus pieces no matter how you set it up: a stat increase that makes you lose the bonus will always need to be weighed, too small, not worth it. The only other option is to bind bonus to shell, with the current issues.

It will have the PvP set bonus with PvE stats. Reacquiring the pieces in 1.2 will not change the results. To get the PvE set bonus on your PvP gear, you will need to acquire the Campaign gear, extract the armorings and put them in your PvP gear. If you only want the chest, you can keep the other 4 Rakata set pieces equipped, get just the Campaign chest and put that armoring in your PvP chest. Big thanks for the clarifications, but they raised a bigger question than I had before: Under a previous dev post, I (arguibly wrong after re-reading) understood that armorings would not be removable from items existing pre-1.2. What I understand now is that armorings are removable, but the set bonus remains attached to the item's "shell". However, set bonus (boni?) from pieces introduced in 1.2 will "travel" with the armoring. What happens if I remove the PvE armorings from 1.2 chest and leg pieces, with PvE bonus attached, and put them in my PvP chest and legs "shells" from pre-1.2, which also have the PvP bonus attached? Sorry if this was asked already (and replied to), I speed-read the thread and didn't spot it

It is the fist time I hear of this "assigned loot" removal, I thought I was following 1.2 closely lol. It is also the first time I hear this about WoW (not playing it any more) I was slightly concerned by the fact that now even MMO games hand out Participant trophies. You humans are a weak species This. Simple and effective. It also allows BW to devote time to actually producing a good game rather than using it to design systems to counter playerbase idiocy and satisfy their sense of entitledness.

I dont mean to bash on you here. I kinda share your view about cutting BW slack, but for me their grace period runs out with 1.2, dubbed "true release version". I didn't expect a wow degree of polishedness, but I didn't expect BW to go full marketing instead of fixing ACTUAL things either, BW inexperience in the MMO market is starting to weight: family tree is roflcopter. But what I want to discuss is what I highlighted on your post: IT ISN'T TRUE. Current design is that you can RE moddable gear, not ANY gear. Lets stop obscuring info even more than BW do by themselves, please. So far it is even unclear whether it is all moddable gear, all except quest rewards, only gear that drops randomly... I haven't found anything, and pretty much nobody seems to find stuff they can RE to get a new "pattern"... currently the looks department bodes to be almost as bad as it was, only you will have more options of bad. I hope I am wrong with this and it is simply not fully impleente din PTS The community would benefit of less people drinking BW koolaid

Why is this? Rolling what until now was the most forgiving (I don't want to call it the easiest) healing class does not make you a good healer. Maybe this is why some guilds keep struggling with HM? They insist in bringing a subpar healer because (s)he rolled a sorcerer?

Not doubting your word here, of course, but I swear I have never noticed this in any of the 3 imperial chars I have put through Tatooine. Not in this planet or anywhere else, and honestly, random adds joining the fight has happened so scarcely over my whole gameplay that I probably put it down to a moment of distraction. If anything, I am constantly surprised in the other direction: by the small aggro radius in this game (compared to WoW or WAR), by patrols walking (without aggroing) right past the spot where my companion is finishing some mob, etc. Agin, maybe it's a matter of playstyle, and I don't go where you are going.

Looking at the issues you mention, it looks to me like you have a serious case of conection spikes with the server more than anything else.

As it has always been and should be. Is it a slip or are you purposefully equalling HardMode with "raiding content"? I really do not know why there is a sudden feeling that everyone should be raiding if they want to, and if they can't then the difficulty needs to be brought down. I am not a hardcore raider myself, so I know NmM is realisticly out of my reach. What I will never understand is why people who, like me, lack the skill or the time or the commitment, or several of them, demand that the endgame should be tuned to their level, leaving those more skilled, more commited, and with less real life things to take care of without a challenge in the game. Seriously, what is people's motivation in this? The content is the same at NmM than you see in Story Mode, so it is not about content. Is it "purplez" then? EDIT: Don't get me wrong, I do understand your point, but this game design hardly qualifies as casual content, and pretending that max difficulty needs to be brought down to fit "the mayority of the player base", when there is extremely easy SAME content available for them makes little sense to me. Catering NmM for the casual not only renders SM pointless, it also reduces your player base. The mayority that was already being catered for will stay and boost their epeen, and the hardcore will leave because the game has no challenge to offer to them. People who call themselves "casual" need to understand that there is a downside to it: hardcore players will always look cooler, be stronger, play better and win more often than you. Casually live with it.

I do agree with you yet, as a PvE'er who gets the short end of the stick 99% of the time pvp prompts a change in my class... I admit I find a sick satisfaction in watching pvp'ers scrood over a PvE-motivated change Yeah, that was my point... people do not get it and complain about stuff that doesn't even make a lot of sense. About your second sentence, I agree, but the limitation sets a better canvas for devs to work on. It really is no matter of laziness on the devs side. If you want to optimize, reducing the number of variables, and when impossible, reducing the variability, is a key point. MAking fights tighter is nothing but an exercise of optimization. WoW did this and there was the same outcry (maybe not this much because of how long the game had been in the market), but it never made fights any easier or harder. Existing encounters were just different to play. In 3 months people will not even remember they used to chug 10-20 medpacks per raid night. Maybe I am just naive, but what GZ explains makes sense to me, and I have to agree that overperforming healers make for less challenging encounters. If healers are the most stressed it probably means that dps and tanks are not stressing themselves enough. Let's be honest... there really is not that much unavoidable damage in current fights. Future responders please distinguish between unavoidable damage and bugged mechanics (orbs with no nameplate, etc.)

I honestly wonder whether people simply do not understand the design benefits of this, or purposely ignore them and procceed to cry about the terrible offence BW is making in forcing them to think and tweak their gameplay. I guess that when people "stalling cc till medpack is up" a strategy, one can see why most can't understand how allowing infinite medpacks limits the designers room to produce variety in fights WITHOUT making chugging medpacks mandatory in the end

You skipped 3. About a, b, c, 2 and 2: You should try to actually dps the mobs instead of talking them to death. I am a lousy dps. I leveled as a bodyguard (for extra challenge) and I can asure you that if any of my story arc encounters was longer than 100-110s (you don't pop a medpack right as you pull, do you?) it was the very odd, mildly relevant fight. In essence, if you take longer to gain control of the fight than they take to kill your pet, you are doomed. About 6 As melee, fight mobs on their spawn spot. It's not like you need to kite in this game. As ranged, try not to set your pull zone on the spawn point of the group you just cleared. I won't even bring into discussion the ludicrous amount of time between the spawn and the mobs actually "activating" and being able to target you. Availability of medpacks is most definitely not your gameplay's most urgent issue. EDIT: I also want to remind that some dev (I think GZ) stated they are looking into leaving medpacs as they are for pre-50 stuff, and limit this change to end-game. I personally welcome the change, but wouldn't care if left as unlimited for leveling and story mode ops. Think that adds game accesibility for the more casual player definitely the way things should work, because you know better huh?; you = funny. or was your irony wasted with me here?

Maybe some of us are nuts and want to see is we can fight a 20 minute fight, just to say, "Top that." (Or as the dev's said in the Guild summit ".... Some of you said 'Challenge Accepted!" I totally support your logic here. My question is: if someone really is that kind of player, does he/she really have a problem with this change? I think not.

Was just making fun of an overused excuse to justify FotM rerolls. May be your case, may not. I still find this a fun concept: "If I don't bring the max to my guild i'm no use!" Very stressful life. I play BH cause I like it and couldn't care less if I bring more or less healing. I have an excellent joke repertoire and no patch can nerf that (until they ban voice comm). I agree with the rest of your post.

Why do you think that just because some people don't have a 50 on the PTS they have no clue? I never said that. Not like that. I said I find it funny how crowded this is compared to how empty PTS is, ergo many complain about stuff you don't need to be 50 for, bla bla bla, without rolling on PTS. Thats what I said. I feel you; I wouldn't enjoy it either. Having to play FotM for my guild to want me, or in order to feel significant, would be horrible.

I am not saying they should, I am saying it is pointless to cry about it when you have no clue lol. BW's PTS policy is f.o.s., but that doesn't keep anyone from trying things out before they get their pants in a knot. I agree, but my point that nobody has any business complaining about a change they haven't given the try. Not if they are over 5.

Oh I would definitely go along with that. Yeah I just disagree with complaining about something you haven't even experienced yet simply because it feels like they are taking away your toy. Same with BH healing nerfs. I didn't get copied, leveled enough to do FP, Heroic 4s and World Bosses with a rather underleveled group for extra challenge, we still did fine. I don't see the big deal. You dont need a 50 toon in PTS to try things out lol.

I still don't know why you keep replying to my posts when we argue for the same thing lol. I never said I want challenging, what I want is for the game potential not to be brought down just because some don't understand how this is a good step towards fight design, and want their mediocre skill level to be the one that matters. I am a heavily casual raider, I get the feeling you believe otherwise. Maybe that why you so intent? Funny enough, our guild is still struggling at early HardMode EV, and nobody seems to care about this change. We will deal with it, cause it means more game depth. I am happy with running Story Mode, and simply don't understand how people mix all this BS about Nightmare difficulty, game content, subscriptions and why if they nerf medpacks they are going against your ability to enjoy the game. It is just a huge joke, a little kid's tantrum. After all, there are WAY more people posting here than have bothered to roll a new toon on PTS and try to run a mid-lvl FP with the new medpack system like some in my guild did. Oh my god we better listen to them or they will go away and we won't have the game anymore! That is just as counterproductive for the community as your a**mouth A player was to complain about softcores in your A-level guild. Again, either you get me wrong or I am missing something here.

I don't mean to bash on you, but the explanation is rather simple: if you (as a Dev) want to design tight fights, while accounting for people using medpacks up to every [insert any number of seconds] cooldown, the tightness is limited by whether or not / how much you force people to mandatorily use those medpacks. This drives a Dev to the joint where they either make chaining medpacks a more or less soft-requisite for raiding, or leave the door open for those who are actually chaining them to effectively/partially negate a certain mechanic. Mechanics we all demand they put more effort in. In all honesty, I kinda like the change, and I think introducing something like bandages (slow, channeled heal that you can perform in combat while not busy/gettng hit) would help with things like SoA falling damage, etc. I honestly believe this is a good step into better fight designs. BW really need to move away from the enrage mechanic as a staple (Molten Core much)

IF only I could believe that. If, and only if, the story mode/class quests were balanced to solo play (and I am not suggesting they were, nor that they should be) at launch they have shown that they have a higher bar set than many people can reach for solo play. [...] But why does "learn to play" = "best business practice?" Oh I wholeheartedly agree with your reply. My post is written from the perspective that hopefully now that BW is done putting out what they surely intended to ship with, I expect to see a change in adressing existing problems rather than adding more. If you are right and this goes on, I'll be disappointed. About the More skill required, I am happy with the game introducing means to crop the good player from the bad, maybe because I dont care enough about the game for it to bother me if I clear HM or NmM, or if I have Rakata or Columi. as long as I can log on for a chalenging night with guildies, on Story Mode if that is what we are doing, I am fine. I find it hard to blame BW for my lack of: playing time, willingness to farm, skill, or any combination of them. I also think that exchanging the need to carry 90 medpacks to an OPS and gaining the challenge of deciding when to use my one time only is hardly a way to make me "work harder", as long as fights are tuned for that conditional. Again, purely high hopes I guess.

Sheeeeeee no hard feelings but lol at your rage rant, mate. I wonder what offended you so deeply. In any case, I do agree with your whole explanation of why WoW failed subscription-wise with Cata. My lol is because I was more talking about when it failed at being a skill-challenging game, which was during WotLK. You actually explained it yourself: you must cater for both the casual and the hardcore (hardcore in skills, not in lack of social life) to win in an MMO market. For that to be possible, the casual need to understand that a certain bit of the game will always be unatainable to them. I am not arguing about "wife and kids" type of players in your example having stuff to do. I am arguing against them thinking that their place belongs in the hardest end-game just because they pay, which means it needs to be tuned down for them. People just get game content confused with best gear WAY TOO often.