This really kills the 1-50 experience imo. Eyes glaze over as the companion basically wipes everything out with his pea gun.

I'm inclined to agree. I played around Hutts Cartel, and while the normal mobs were always easy enough, fighting the strong and elite enemies required popping some heals or being careful not to aggro too many mobs. Now, you can solo heroics on level. T7 on DPS mode is one-shotting most mobs before I finish my force leap. I know the game is at the 60+ end of the scale, but content being this mindless is pretty much a surefire way to put people off the game. If 1-50 is mindlessly boring it ain't a good sign. Not to mention by the time these people hit 60 they're going to really struggle when they reach the apparently 'proper' content. It isn't so much a game anymore than a walking punchbag.

Huh, last I played orange shell + mods was the way to go. I'm guessing that's been killed? Hm, is crafting worthwhile now? So confused by all that. O_o

I just posted in new player help about this issue =x Oh well, I'll just move on.

Been a while since I played. I was running around on Tython and I didn't get the Seekers of Truth title for beating the heroic (twice). My google-fu is letting me down, but I did see a topic bemoaning the removal of some stuff with the addition of kiosks. Does it just happen to be that the title was removed by any chance?

Just to ask (since it's related); In theory then: 1) Get yourself a set of Orange awesome-sauce. 2) Spend Planet Comms on Mods and armouring and so on and keep it all up to date. 3) Profit. But, if you're starting a-new, would you suggest: a) Picking cybertech and making your own mods/whatever as you go along b) Picking biochem and investing in healing (re-usables and whatnot) Reason I ask is because I see a lot of comments that Biochem 'saves' a new player a ton of money and in some ways boosts their survivability through re-usables and so on. Yet on the crew skills forums the only time cybertech gets its moment in the spotlight is for 'PvP' and 'grenades' - very little is said about the mods and stuff. Am I to assume that planetary comms armour/mods are better than cybertech's?

Yeah that one is stupid in my view. I ran with a Trooper ages back and getting DS points for maintaining confidentiality is... whack. If anything you should be getting DS points for breaching that confidentiality. In other situations, I think there was one about infected people trapped behind a door and they order you to gas them... Iirc saving them is the light-option and following orders is the dark option, I can get behind that in some ways but if I remember rightly, you don't have anything to go off but their word that they're unharmed/uninfected whatever it was and the safest option was to follow orders... Seems daft getting penalised for it. Then again, I don't see why a Trooper would need to be worried about LS/DS points, maybe that's the entire point of the system for them, to show they're not Jedi, they're not bound by the code of light/dark, they do the dirty work, end of?

Only read the first few pages but I just wanted to catch some perceived elitism and I'll apologise if someone already tackled it. Point: Just because people don't like PVP/Raid or whatever does NOT make them a casual gamer. There's plenty of people who like to solo, or who just want to experience the story-side of things. Not everyone facerolls from 1-50 and spacebars through every conversation to get glibs and stick other players in the back with a sharp pointy object. Also, plenty of people don't have the time to hang about and raid/PvP, plenty can't be bothered with the attitudes of some groups, others simply don't find PvPing or big wiped group content that much fun. It doesn't make them a casual gamer by any stretch of the imagination. There's plenty who can dip into both categories and choose not to. Really, if the statistics about raiders/PvP is as low as the claims are, then it's not really surprising. There's been an obsession from developers and game designers for 'multiplayer' (on consoles in particular) and PvP for a while and it usually ends poorly because they give it far too much importance than it warrants. Don't get me wrong now, PvP and raids and all that jazz has its place in an MMO, but it's not everyone's cup of tea and not everyone is fixated on items/gear and so on and so forth. But it always amuses me that its given the priority as end-game content, I can understand why, it's cheap and easy, but most MMO's falter at this point and it's the one particular consistent across the board. I think they (well everyone really) needs to approach the 'end-game' at a new angle and that aside, needs to have a greater focus on maintaining the PvE over the PvP rather than the other way round. One last thing to note is that, TOR followed on from two very story-driven, single-player centric games. That audience has to be taken into account, though I do wonder if they're even around at this stage anymore.

It's obviously all of those people who play light side Siths and Dark side Jedi's in SWTOR. And most of those who do play their classes straight. So 90% of SWTOR's jedi/sith suck I suppose.

Getting grouped with a Shii-Cho tank... makes me happy most content is solo usually. Anyway, FP's are soloable if you grey them. Not all content will be soloable though, so I think just bite the bullet and group for flashpoints. You might be surprised and get a nice team. P.S. MMO doesn't mean you have to play with others. -_-

I actually thought the Sentinel would be akin to KOTOR1 and 2 and be a half and half, all rounder with an extra crew skill, but obviously not. I do wish my Knight was a bit more force-y and I do wish my Consular could... use his glowstick.

Just thinking on this, if class-stories are no longer the core theme of the game post 50 (looking at Makeb) and any future expansions will continue the 'one story fits all' mechanic then, could the Nemesis system implemented in City of Heroes be a good addition? I think it would suit post 50 content, since the class story has ended there's no further personal enemies to deal with. The inclusion of the nemesis system could allow for players to have their own little arcs, I'd assume it would find a lot of favour on rp servers. For those who don't know CoH's nemesis system was like so; You could create your own nemesis via the player creation tool. You'd then participate in a series of breadcrumb missions that would eventually culminate in a big showdown where you defeat said nemesis. Once it ended they either pulled off a jailbreak or you moved on and made another nemesis. I was thinking if they let you create and customise a nemesis, then a series of smaller 'arc' quests that were random and varied could allow for some additional content in the future without breaking the bank (in theory). They would also have scope to add further missions/quests to the concept, to keep it different. Anyway I only thought of this because I was running through one of the jedi Knight missions and I got to wondering what it would be like to have my own personal sith pain in the butt once the story and villains have been concluded. Thoughts?

Just roll with it really. I duo'd with a trooper on Esselles and he 'need' rolled on Jedi boots (me being a Jedi)... and he won it... ¬_¬ On the other hand I duo'd it again with another Jedi Sentinel and she passed on Guardian gear where I passed on Sentinel gear, so some people do apply common sense. In Athiss though, one of the girls kicked off about someone getting an item and wouldn't participate further until they traded it over. Fair enough, the other guy traded it shortly after I think partially cos the instance was like 80% done at that point... >_> Personally, I just ignore it. If custom gear is the way to go, there's always going to be other means of getting it, anything else is just gravy. Course, I'm not at the top end of gear raiding et al yet so I may be a bit casual on that issue.

For Commando there is some smaller assault cannons available. I think in Tatooine there's a rather compact one, though I thought it was a bit ugly looking. Actually, first time with the Commando it made me feel like I was coming from Aliens, y'know Vasquez with the big rapid fire cannon? And mortar strike never got old. The only downside for me is the story kind of falters quite quickly around the end of Chapter 1. If you have some leeway to learn melee, a Guardian would more forgiving than a Sentinel? Especially if you go down the defence tree, plenty of survivability there. Of course you do have T7 quite early on to tank for you if you go Sentinel, just let him deal with things as you figure things out?

By reasons you mean "cos we can" and "just because you cut off her head doesn't mean she's dead". >_> Sorry, I was there on the forums when the writer thought he was being clever by fumbling stupid excuses out of the bag to explain the ret-cons. It got worse with his own explanation of what counts as a retcon/canon etc. Regardless anyone who was there for that debate and the multiple idiot ball posts by said person, have gotten comfortable with the fact DA:I will probably be something ridiculous, dressed up as 'button = awesome' and 'I wrote it, therefore it's true!" plot. Or hey, maybe they'll touch base and write a decent plot. It's not like DA2 was a classic example of how arrogance and over-confidence makes you write turd and wind up 80% of the fanbase. On topic, I thought most people predicted Revan and Exile would be given the idiot ball and whack-bat the moment KoToR 3 ceased to exist and the MMO was announced. But this is really a good lesson in why former PC's shouldn't be guest-star NPCs in future games. You'll never satisfy the majority of people, who have run with the PC in different ways and have different relationships with them. My Revan/Exile is not going to be the same as yours or anyone else outside of the general basic plot.

Don't like the 'bat and smash' finishing move though. I always figured if you did that the lightsaber would pretty much slice them in half... It's not a batting tool! Feh!

Fair enough, though I level so fast, I'm three ahead on the commendations to what I get from crafting. Partially cos crafting, to me, is a huge timesink to keep on-level at least until you get the companions to churn out missions for... I've gone Biochem / Bioanalysis and Slicing. Seems smoother to me. I'm a guardian though. >_>

Defense + Soresu for soloing heroics I'd say. It also lets Kira wail on everything as you stay alive and take all the hits. The upshot is, it's the tank spec, so you'll have some priority in flashpoints. I say, you'll get some nice groups as a tank, provided of course, your teammates understand your limitations.

Jolee Bindo disagrees. "Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled... but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love... that's what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you... not condemn you." ―Jolee Bindo, Anyway, I'm in agreement with Jolee. You can be in love without letting passion get in the way of things. Its difficult to elaborate on though, most people will associate love with passion, with lust even. But it's an experience that comes with age and maturity I think. An understanding that you can love without passion - it might not sound fun, but eh... Anyway, the couple in the quest are pretty much ruled by passion (not love), bribery and death threats don't sit well with me. Too bad Jolee Bindo isn't on the council.

Isn't it more that they ask inane questions that are usually covered in the tutorials? To be fair, on the RP server I'm on there's very little griefing (that I've noticed), don't suppose you're on the PvE/PVP servers by chance?

They seem more seeped in myth and exaggeration than fact. Least that's what I figure.

I did two warzones (I hate PvP...) the other day. First attempt, we lost, it was just a huge PUG running around having a ball basically. I don't think anyone really cared if we won or lost. Was good fun, if you're not stuck on 'winning' all the time. It certainly can help teach you how to move/target/attack at a super-fast pace for sure. Second attempt, I got PM'd by some of the other players demanding that they "hoped I knew what I needed to do" and a bit of a group that were pretty demanding in how the game had to be played. I guess I ended up being teamed with a guild-group or something. Needless to say the second attempt was off-putting, annoying and frustrating as I came on to have another go, not to be sneered at for being a low leveled guy there cos of the intro quests. ¬_¬ Naturally I left pretty soon after (bad form maybe? But whatever.) So, it's hit or miss. I'd queue for it and give it a go. See what its like, just do your own thing.

I found that you get better stuff (mods/hilts etc) off the commendations vendor (on-level or over) than you do from Artifice though.

Commando here, Armormech crafter, PvE primary... If you keep it in line with your level (not that difficult), it's a perfect match for the class imo. The craftable armour is far superior to planet mission and class drops on level. If, like me, you go through the whole planet quest lines you'll usually have superior armour to the planetary commendations as well. Wouldn't say it's going to make you money though, but for an easy route to keeping your gear up to date it's suitable. Most of the stuff you need is found in the field as well, and a few from droid enemies. The only things I ever need to 'mission' for are rare metals (Underworld trading) and fluxes (Scavenging). Does that help?

Needs a sticky tbqh. While I'm probably reviving a dead thread, a question; In general for PvE only which is better? Sustained / DoT (damage over time) or burst? If I'm right Burst/spike damage is the way for PvP no? Anyway this sort of topic is very useful, I (still) have no real idea about the trees etc despite pushing level 30 >.< I was hoping the game would explain it a bit more but eh.