Well no wonder I was confused. Here I was, accustomed to people calling Tionese Tier 1, Columi Tier 2, and Rakata Tier 3. Now that I know that all three are Tier 1 while Black Hole is Tier 2, all is well.

Thank you all for the great info! I'm reading in this thread that gear bought before 1.2 will have set bonuses stuck on the item's "shell." If I wanted to put my Rakata set gear into an augmented orange set, I'd still hold out until 1.2 to turn in my Rakata tokens right?

Ahh I see, gotcha. Thanks for the response!

I've been away from the forums for a while, but I remember reading in a thread which I can't find anymore that certain benefits of the 1.2 patch will only apply to token gear acquired AFTER 1.2 goes live. Is that true or did I read it wrong? Last night I picked up quite a few Rakata tokens and I'm wondering if I should trade them in now or wait until 1.2 hits. I just can't remember the specifics. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks!

For 1.2, I'm gonna say BH/Trooper heals, hands down. Overall since launch, I'd say IA/Smug for sure. As for 1.2 alone, the Tracer/Grav adjustments aren't worth mentioning as they really aren't nerfs. However, the healing BH/Troopers have been straight up fudge packed by BW. No dinner, no movie. Just fudge packed. Still viable? We'll see. As far as this thread goes (1.2), BW most definitely held their "hose" over the BH/Trooper healers a bit longer than the other classes with this upcoming patch.

Tomato, tomato. I had a chuckle at this as well. I can't wait to see the actual patch notes for 1.2. I wonder if they'll be putting in another bar for this. I know some classes don't have nearly as many abilities as others, but I have no doubt that there are people out there with all bars full when it comes to having both skills and adrenals, etc hot keyed. I remember in Aion I had so many friggin abilities that I ended up downloading some file that turned my Caps Lock key into another modifier. Finally the Caps Lock key had a purpose other than annoying people!

I'm liking the Trooper a bit more than the BH aside from the Trooper animation problems that are currently in place. Hopefully they will fix that in time. Other than that, equipment is what does it for me. During the climb to 50, I'd have to give Trooper the win. Trooper armor looks like it belongs to someone who should be in battle, unlike the BH, who might look more at home on a bee farm in certain sets. Come endgame, I think a lot of the BH gear looks absolutely ridiculous. Trooper wins again. The BH Tionese/Columi/Rakata is just... no. I do like some of the BH PvP sets though. The 40 set in particular looks fantastic while the 50 sets are hit and miss for me, while I think the Trooper versions of the above look great across the board. That said, I'm eagerly awaiting the patch that allows us to remove armoring from end game gear so that we can swap to some of the better looking gear. I feel as if the best looking BH gear is the gear that isn't end-game quality, and this patch would probably close a bit of the appearance gap for me. With weapons I'm a little torn. While I do prefer a rifle to a single pistol and a BFG to dual pistols, you just can't beat all the cool tools and gadgets the BH has in/on his suit. I'll call this one a tie. In the end I'm leaning pretty heavily toward my Trooper alt, however, Blizz is win incarnate and nothing Trooper has will ever be enough to top him.