There are also a number of pairs of pants availble from social venders @ social 2 that are orange - modable. If I remember right - the fleet commendation vender has a pair that is only social 1.

Who am I to judge, If somebody asks me, "can you make X" - I don't really care why they want it- I just don't want it to be a hassel to answer that question. I've developed a lot of schematics that are not useful to me personally because It gives me something to trade with other players for gear I can't make. Prototype grade gear of any level that I make sells quickly on the GTN. Sure it's not as profitable as simply questing- but if the community doesn't populate the GTN with crafted items - neither crafting nor the GTN will ever really develop into something that works properly. It's purely annecdotal- but I have noticed that when I jump ahead in my schematics I don't seem to get my procs as quickly. But when I do them sequencially- they happen rather quickly. If there is some hidden mechanism behind this that makes it true- it may be cheaper to take a completionist's approach to crafting.

Please change the UI so that no matter whether you choose to organize by difficulty or level, prototype and and artifact grade equipable items are organized in a tree structure beneith their associated premium grade item. I've got so many schematics for sheilds and focii that I can't hardly figure out sometimes whether or not I've got a particular artifact schematics from a given prototype- because the UI alphabetizes them into an incoherent mess. The current system works fine for the item mods, but when you theoretically have 18 options to develop from every single green schematic, it becomes very difficult to avoid crafting and REing items to obtain schematics that you actually already have.

I'm only to lvl 41. but I've followed my story through 4 planets completely, doing nearly all bonus missions. I havn't leveled any alts or played any other class for more than an hour. Pros of a sage full healer spec 1. you are in demand for PUGs .... BIG TIME, sage healer may be the best republic healer possible. I get "DANG you're a good healer!" all the time - sometimes while doing crew skills during combat. And 2 sages with Qyzen can pwn most on level heroics. Hence the shortage of sage healers LFG. 2. you still have passable cc and dps 3. every level past 26 or so, each skill point makes you just that much more awesome. The skill points stack really well (but put 5 points in the left most T1 telekinetic abilities - as you can) Cons of a sage full healer spec 1. you don't ever feel like you actually kill any mobs, it's your companions or party members. NO GLORY - and in combat- you spend almost all your time clicking the same 5 buttons. 2. you have a longer recovery time between battles, so you're always lagging behind the group. 3. you have very little in the way of gear available that doesn't make you look like an idiot. And as a male toon - not 1 hat that you wouldn't be ashamed to wear out in public.

I'm only up to my 3rd companion so far. My experience thus far. 1. Qyzen- absolutely necessarily for a consular of any spec to solo any content on Coruscant. Actually pretty funny. Seems like he's trying TOO hard to understand how to get along with a "human" perspective of social mores. When, acording to lore, trandosians eat their siblings as soon as they hatch. As his story has unfolded thus far, he seems to suffer from a severe case of idol worship. It feels very much like, "of mice and men". I run with a #2 male zabrak toon. We look like mutt and jeff - nearly matching horns. he genuinely wants to emulate the consular character, but he doesn't quite understand that perspective. I make my choices as are ethically in charachter, and don't worry about how Qyzen will judge me- becuase his intention seems to be to learn from me. I think that is what the devs were shooting for. I got kind of agravated about not being able to get techblades or customizations for him, but 90% of the model is covered by gear- so that's some good customization in the game. But if you give him a on level grade techblade- he slaughters mobs before you get to show off your abilities as a consular. I feel a little let down that I'm probably going to run with this guy through to the end. It's interesting to have a buddy that considers every living thing in the universe a potential meal, not out of disrespect or a misguided sense of superiority - but just out of biological capaicty to make a meal out of almost every living thing in the universe.

I agree with OP, but at the same time- the lack of orange tech blades has made a market for crafted techblades on my server. I'm not the crafter, but at least I can get 1 to stay up to level. As for aim hilts, how hard would it be to add them to artifice? Who cares if they would drop anywhere at all, a huge number of consulars are probably artifice crafters. I feel like Qyzen has some changes coming- like maybe a few more appearance mods, or something.

Anybody else go to the droid "junk yard" collect all the droid parts, and then activate the area boss, to see 3 of them spawn at the same time, but stuck inside of each other?

They seem to be introducing more social items- as a consular, I can't find a pair of pants LOL, and I've seen 2 new pairs of pants that are social gear show up on fleet in the last 2 weeks. leveling as a group through the nar shaddaa bonus sseries put me over level for alderan- pretty bad. What I find frustrating, is that I can't do anything with my story missions while part of a group. I feel like my party members should have the option to at least accompany me, and watch my conversations. Yeah, it would spoil the story line for them, but then they wouldn't have to wait on me, or leave the group.

I can't wait for those Alderan commendations.

I don't know about the UI being clunking- I'm leveling my first character in the first MMO I've ever played. I just made lvl 27 consular/sage yesterday (4skill points in T1 telekinetics - rest in my heal tree). I've found several things that I like about healing and some that I don't. Things I like ..... 1. I don't have a problem finding a pick up group when the server is busy. 2. I control the flow of the battle with my lifts, stuns, shields, and heals. It can be great fun. 3. My skills and abilities just started stacking really well a few levels ago. Between that and bonusses from gear, I'm getting scary capable of holding up a team against a crazy amount of damage. 4. I enjoy team play. 5. seeing a group get impatient and decide that they're going to try and start before I get to the trail head of the mission. They get pwned, and then they respect me for the rest of the mission. Things I don't like... #1. The fact that only a few tanks and other healers seem to understand how long it takes for me to recharge between fights. My bars are nearly always almost gone, because nobody ever spent a single med pack or heal on me - not even me. By the time I've got my bars full- people are normally getting out of range and LOS. When I haven't even had a chance to check my map or get any loot. My job becomes typing "WAIT" over and over. I spend every battle watching their bars, and they can't even waste 1 second to look at mine. Now that I think about it - I'm going to implement a policy of not typing "wait"- and just let them get killed from now on. How can I emphasize this point more? 2. Being blamed over and over for failure to heal when DPS players didn't do anything to defend me from agrro, or pulled too many mobs at once. 3. People dropping from the group and saying things like, "this healer sux" While I'm dressed like the flying nun just for the willpower bonuses. Do people honestly think I looked at my gear and bought it because I wanted to dress my toon like this? 4. Solo'ing is starting to be just me healing and hiding behind my pet all the time. It's kind of confining my whole gameplay to like five buttons. Things I wish I could have but will probably never get... 1. A battle report card that lets everyone in my group see a total of how much damage was dealt/ mitigated/ taken/ & healed by each player - after every fight. I know DPS players would just close the card & not read it. But tanks and healers wouldn't 2. Achievements or unlockable content of some sort earned by damage healed. 3. Equpment that buffs my specialty that doesn't make me look like I'm into disco (although I don't yet know anything about anything from other than my first 4 worlds) My most enjoyable group experiences thus far have been playing 2+ heroics with tanks, period. At any given time- I see that about 20% of the people on my server are sages. But they're all solo'ing or playing 2+ heroics with each other, because they don't like the same things I don't like. If not for Qyzen- the consular/sage/heal spec class would be unplayable. But I won't be surprised to find out when I'm level 40 or so, that many 4+ heroics/ flashpoints/ ops are unplayable without them.