That's my point. Companions must be strong enough to be used by a fresh char on a fresh account. NO overgearing. NO perfect rotation. NO full set of 8 hero moment abilitys. Your level is below or fit the current content. If all this is true, THEN it should be challenging but doable! If you're overgeared + level 65 + 100% know all your abilitys + have 4 or more hero abilitys ... then you should be able to do any H2 content alone while sleeping . Heroic H2 Starbases should be challenging ,,, but with the FP-buff, good gear and some playerskill it should be doable in less then 1 hour as Healer or Tank (the endboss curently can take alot of time with low DPS specs!). AND all 3 compenion types (heal, tank, dps) must be equal usefull ... which is NOT the case atm!

NO! A global influence tweek would hit all of them. Heal, tank and DPS. While heal is strong again ... tank and DPS are still underpowert! So a global influence tweek would hit tank+dps form much harder then the healing form. NO GLOBAL changes until healing, tanking and DPSing performs so differently!!

The one who claim to want a challeng do something fundamental wrong! If I check the one who bring this as argument they ALL play with over-geared chars! Like full 220/224 sets @Starbases. And with this total over-geared chars ... well, why the hell do they feel no challenge if they do pre 208 no-set content with 220/224 full set equip? TIP: put ALL your 220/224 items into your bank, get some 192/198 blue gear ... and THEN come back and talk about "challenge" after you finished your full 208 Starbase gear . PS: And for the H2+ missions ... they are designed and balanced around the planets level AND gear. So if you feel overpowert with 65 max gear ... this is NOT a problem of the compenions!! It is a problem of the up-/down-level adjustments! Maybe BioWare should check how they calculate the down-level from 65 to let's say 30 (and how the companions are handled when down-leveled). Maybe there is a BUG inside the scaling-routins?

PS: this is to important to add it above! ALL compenions are hard limited when it comes to game mechanic! As soon as there is any movement involved (get out of voids, jump&run, push puttons (Liberary H2 @Makeb)) ... any player is far superior to a compenion no matter how they heal, tank or deal damage! So if you want true 2 player content ... just add Mind Traps which have to be destroyed, buttons to be pressed simultan, voids which must be evaded . This will be imposible with just 1 player + companion!!!!

There is definitly the need to split the balance! Classes + spec | level | gear Mercenary DD spec | 65 | 216 full set + 220/224 mods Assassin tank spec | 65 | 2 pice 216 set + 216/220 mods Sabo heal spec | 65 | no set bonus + 216/220 mods TL;TR Compenion HEAL is ok now, PLEASE DON'T TOUCH AGAIN! Compenion TANK loses HP far to fast and damage is terrible. NEED a better defens OR selfe-heal ability! Compenion DPS isn't worth the regenartion time wast. Using the healer is ALLWAYS faster (and safer)! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DPS spec class + healer compenion : good position Tank spec class + healer compenion : close to immortal BUT very poor damage output. Enemys die ... just a matter of time (boss fights can take 10++++ minutes). Healer spec class + healer compenion : makes no sense BUT is the only viable option atm . You do "damage" (ROFL, yea, 1,5k DPS with my Sabo Healer .. harhar) while the compenion heals you. DPS spec class + tank compenion : works often as long as there is no boss fight, good for trash groups Tank spec class + tank compenion : makes no sense ... and I couldn't find a use for this combo Healer spec class + tank compenion : works BUT super slow and boring as you have to spent 100% of the time keeping the compenion alive AND super slow again! DPS spec class + DPS compenion : works for super low trash (normal + gray stars) but don't realy increase your speed as you have to reg much more often then with a healer compenion but don't get a big DPS-boost. Tank spec class + DPS compenion : works pritty well BUT the killing speed + regen time is wors then just go with a healer compenion and have no regen time! Healer spec class + DPS compenion : well, you switch into the tank position with healing-aggro and wait till the compenion kills stuff. Works but not very funny for me .

and you have no other problems then posting so much about a singel letter? Poor little guy Go to Hasbro and buy some toys. PS: who are you anyway? somebody important who has the right to grammer-police other people? like a Doc.Prof.3.Grade? Or just one of the million TROLLS who don't realy have to say anything important who tryhard to get some love? Well, here: HUG LOVE KISS ... now back to your Hasbro toys my son .

Tank Companion 4.0 I like to play my level 65 Sabo healer with 216/220 mixed gear from cristal, drob and tokan modifikations. With 4.0 I started to use Xalek as personal Tank ... and it was FUN . I could handle any H2+ mission super easy (to easy, yes, I know). Even groups of 2 golden stars + several silver stars had been no problem. Xaleks important tank abilitys: - his selfe cast absorb shield - his first ability (german: "Bedrohlicher Schlag") which heals him for 100% of damage done - his defens (defens, damage reduktion) Tank Companion 4.0.2(x) It's no real fun anymore . First of Xaleks first ability is BUGGED! The tooltip says: "Does 0 damage and heals him for 25% of that amount". 25% of 0 = 0!. While I belive it's just a tooltip bug this ability is still HARD NERVED. 1) with 4.0.2 all damage has been nerved by 50%-75% while in Tank-Mode 2) the healing from this ability was nerved from 100% to 25% !!!!!!!!!! SO you did a 90%+++ nerve to the survibility of all tank companions! Minimum 25% healing of 50% damage, worst 25% of 75% damage Second you indirect nerved the tanking ability by nerving the primary stats which are: 1) AGAIN another damage nerv 2) a nerv to the defens and damage absorb 3) a nerv to the selfe cast absorb shield TL;TR I have to say it: Do you realy spend a second of brainwork before you do all this nerves?? SOLUTION: 1) set the first ability to: "heal 100% of damage done" (THE DAMAGE IS DOUBLE NERVED ALLREADY) 2) increase the defens and damage absorb to 4.0 values -15% 3) set the selfe cast absorb shield to 4.0 values -15% 4) fix the tootip bug of Xalek (some other companions have this too, other don't) PS: My Xalek has influence 33 atm.

No matter if the elitists like it or not, SWToR lifes from the causals. As most other MMORPGs up to maybe 70% are very causals who log in 1th a week to do some solo stuff. 20% are regular visitors who play 1-3 hours/day. And only 10% (if at all) are hardcore gamers. And they are split in 70% who do NOT like the change , 15% who don't care and 15% who DO like this change. So only a MINORITY like this ubar nerv! Cry as loude as you can ... you (the lovers) are on the shorter end of the stick. BioWare would be stupid, to not reverse it or at last buff the compenions again to a level of maybe 25% less then 4.0 . And for real, to balance something means FINE-TUNE it (5, 10, 15, 20, 25% steps). NOT to use a damn sledgehammer (50, 75% bs).

Short answare: TERRIBLE Long answare: Before 4.0.2 I could easily do H2 missions with my healer Agent and his 25 inf tank compenion. Throw him 2 HoT and refresh them every now and then. Rest of the time I could do damage and so had a nice mission-speed. After 4.0.2 it is just HORRIBLE! I must heal the tank compenion all the time AND he is doing less damage AND I can't do damage too. So mission speed drobed DRASTICAL! Not only his nerved 50% lower damage but my 2,5k DPS is missing too (HEALER SPEC before some trolls come in). It is absolut NO FUN anymore to do missions with a Healer+useless (tank) Compenion! Before 4.0.2 it was posible to go into Starbases with 2 player and 2 compenions just with old 192 gear. Endboss was hard but you could finish him. After 4.0.2 you NEED 216 no set gear to finish a mini FlashPoint in decent time (less then 1 hour) where just 208 mods can drob! STUPID WHY should someone go into a FP with 216++ gear when there is nothing of interest for him?? So if you keep the nerv ... rename the Starbases as H4!

No matter if this pool is representativ or not (a gaming pool will NEVER be representativ as most causals never ever visit web pages or forums). A big percentage of the one who are active at the forum do NOT like this über-nerv! And this should be clear to everyone now. And what me ennoy most is the damn all-or-nothing mentality . Why not 5, 10 or 25%? WHY atombomb 50% to make them close to useless??? Delecacy of feeling <- 100% MISSING!

I allready had just 3 month. With 4.0 I had alot of fun to grind reputation, influence or farm unlooks. While the add-on was very disapointing (NO side quests, NO dailys, nearly empty new planet, tunnel-vision main quests (no need to search, there is just one braindead way)) allready and only the StarBases (you can't even walk around on Odessa!!). The only cool aspect was the new Compenion System. Which is now DESTROYED! I will not buy any more month even if the missing Chepters come. I will watch the next content via YouTube and that's it.

Postin in colored text with bigger size doesn't make it more important. Bad try to fake the "I am BioWare offiziel". PS: and I reported you for this bad try! As expected there are allways some "pros" who come in and refuse the problems. For you this might be fun (I just belive you are trolling as "pros" ALLWAYS love to skip and rush content where ever posible). And how long do you need for the end boss? 10, 15 or even 20 minutes? With a full set of 8 Heroic moment abilitys? If you now say less then 5 minutes prove it with a video! No matter, the number of angry posts show the trueth: MOST play hate this absurd overtuned nerv! Why 50% less healing/tanking/damage?? Why not 5% or 10%?? WHY must it be the damn Atom Bomb style?? 50% is NOT "balance" ... it's a "fu. you solo players"! A big punch in the face!

Pre 4.0.2 you could actual do something on low pop servers without the need to search 60 minutes for a group. Log in, chose your compenion, do some H2 missions or start a Starbase. Have instant fun for 30 to 60 minutes and then log out again. Remember: most working people with family can NOT play 4 hours / day! They might have some minutes before/after dinner. Maybe just enough to run one Starbase with their compenions. BioWare ... you just destroyed this option! Result: low pop server will degenerate further as all this working people with family will start to search for other games where they can do what they pay for: PLAY.

No matter what some fanboys try to say Tank Compenions can NOT tank anymore without full time heal backup! Heal Compenions can NOT heal anymore as a standart heal-pot does the work much better done! DPS Compenions can NOT DPS anymore as even an heal spec Agent does 10times the DPS! They aren't much more then the pasive PETs now! From time to time they move their arms ... but without a noteble effect!!!

You talk about "progression"? Normal way judging from gear-level would be: 208: FP sm / H2 Starbase 216: FP hc / OP sm 220: OP hc 224: OP nm BUT it is damn stupid to run FP HC as some OP HC are MUCH easier becouse of terrible up-/down-scaling. OPs are made for endgame (max level), FPs are not. And (as expected) BioWare failed to balance the formaly low-level FPs. Means everything in there is horrible over-pushed now! TL;TR : prograssion IS allready broken as you do FP sm > OP sm > OP hc > FP hc (but only for fun, NOT TO PROGRESS)!!!

And AGAIN someone did not manage to "BALANCE" . Seams realy hard for the gaming industry to do DECENT adjustments. They either go "WARHARHAR MOOOOOOOREEEE" or "pfff, don't care let's roflstomt it". Overpowert or Underpowert, nothing in between . For my Agent Healer it was allready a slow grind to finish a Starbase solo. But it was doable. Now the Companions CAN NOT tank it anymore!!! Any golden star enemy simply destroy them . Doing the minibosses?? FORGET IT!! @BioWare: if 1000 is overpowert try 900 and DO NOT go to 100 instantly!!!!!!!!!!!! That's not "balancing" ... that's BRAINDEAD IDIOTIC! PS: YES, I am super angry about the incompetence to do SLIGHT ADJUSTMENTS but allways use the fu.... Atombomb all-or-nothing-US-style!!!

Stop posting this lie and play a Merc or Scond to know what "squishiest" mean. no CD Bubble + no CD Sprint + 10000 CC == NOT squishy! And NO, light armor means nothing as most damage is elementel anyway which ignores even heavy armor. But Sorc/Sage do have a 20% elementel resitence buff which Merc+Scond do not have! If you get killed as Sorc/Sage you do something terrible wrong!

Just tryed to get onto the test server and it told me I should download 11+ GB. I might be a relict but with my 2500 DSL (max 256kb/sec downstream) this is by far to much for 1 download. How much will 1.2 be?

^ this There was just one patch till now, where I would belive that more then 1 guy is working for BW. Most of the patch notes aren't even half a DIN A4 if you remove blank lines. That's what my boss expect me to do in 2 DAYS and not 1 to 2 weeks. PS: And I do any bet they wanted to release 1.2 as boxed add on where we should pay for ... if 1.0 hadn't been such a desaster.

Diablo 3 will not kill this game as it's a totaly different type of game. GW2 might hurt ... if it's posible to hurt it further from outside then BW does it from inside. To many mistaks and errors are made allready which hurt MUCH more then GW2 can. - badly designed group-finder which feels much more like last-minute "oh **** we don't have" - slow handling of real problems just to make 1.2 look better. Most of the stuff should have been hotfixed as soon as it was ready!!! - still a realy bad comunication. People want to get news from the game website and don't want to google for some statement anywhere else. Hell, they are to lazy to provide links and paying useres have to do the job! It's cool if you are fanboys of Twitter, Facebook and all this stuff ... but THIS is your website where you MUST comunicate. Not some random 3. party platform! - it's a slap in the face to release bugged and unfinished stuff at all. If I would live in the US I'd consider to sue BW to get my money back (box+fee) for selling broken stuff. PS: I know CCP made mistaks too ... but they learned fast and corrected the mistakes in no time (hell, they throw away all the stuff their custumers don't want and fixed most problems within 3 month with patches every second day needing 30-60 MINUTES ... not 8 hours!!!). @BW if you like to learn how to comunicate and to handle patches -> ask CCP!

this for most. Since release there was ONE small 'balace' where a allready gimped class was nerfed even more while the real OP classes are untoucht. All we got since release are some minor bugfixes which had been fixed BEFORE it was released. But gamers are so damn forgiving ... every BS will be defended with 'give it time' or 'do it better'. Dude, when I try to make money with a product, I WILL do it better. And they had years to do it right before release. I was blinded by the realy cool quest-videos and wanted to love this game. But I should have known better when I saw EA is involved .

Just to simply - People leave - server pop goes down - the LEFTOVER reroll Hard to get isn't it ?

And I hate people like you. When I pay real money for a comerciel product, I EXPECT a perfect and propper working product! If I buy a bike, a TV or radio ... it MUST be tested BEFORE I buy it. It's not "we used a wheel which MIGHT be stable enough" or "sometimes your picture might have artefacts with this TV" or "ignore this scratching noice from the radio, we'll fix it later". I just paid 50€? NO! With the pay2play model we all pay MUCH more. If you still playing it's allready far over 100€ and if you play it till end of the year it's close to 200€. For 200€ there is no "be happy with what you get". For 200€ the comerciel produc MUST BE FINISHED AND PERFECT! Hell, you guys from the US, you call the Court for every braindead stupid stuff ... even people who put their Hamsters into a Microwave can win against the producer. WHY do you except bugged and unfinished software????????? PS: and NO, software isn't more difficult to produce then a Radio (a good one from Bose or Löwe). The days where software was a mysterie are over since 1970! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_%28programming_language%29

BW allready said, they tolerate semi-macros. So you are allowed to combine some actions (for example all your 15 sec cooldown abilitys). It's no realy macro but more a "use one key for several keys". If you have a Razor, Logitech or any other keyboard where you can program the keys it's easy to do. Just as example you could use "1" for AoE slow and "SHIFT+1" for AoE tount. Now you attach both ("1" and "SHIFT+1") to the 1 KEY without breaks between. If you hit the 1 KEY it will spam both but as there is a global cooldown just one skill fires. If AoE slow is on cooldown it fires the AoE tount. If AoE tount is on cooldown the AoE slow fires. If both are on cooldown nothing happens . As Jedi Knight you have 4 high damage abilitys with 15 second cooldowns. Just bind them all to one key. 2, shift+2, alt+2, ctrl+2 and use the 2 key. To activate them all you need to push the 2 key 4 times. So it is NO macro (you need to press the button active) but a "group actions".

I don't 'make money'. Money comes to me while playing . Space missions have a nice payout, dailys, PvP, normal questing, FPs if you don't wipe every corner. If you are realy broken do some of the lower level FPs solo or a H4 you can solo (level 35 to 45). But there is realy no need to 'grind' for money. If you want to sell stuff go learn Weaponsmith. Techstaffs, Techkneifs, Techswords. They normaly don't drob and you can't buy them from NPCbut many compenions need them.