1. How do you think your Vanguard spec is perceived by other classes? Shield - a cool tank that can cruise through flashpoints and holds good aggro on bosses and packs of mobs alike. Assault - Flavor of the Month, overpowered 2. How do you perceive your own spec? Shield - cool tank spec I can cruise through flashpoints with and not worry too much about aggro. Assault - omg amazing. way more powerful than my commando. so fun to play, great mechanics and solid execution. I just love fire so lighting people up with lightning and fireballs is awesome! My only complaint is the hidden icd on Ionic Accelerator. I liked it more when I could spam ion pulse for a chance at high impacts Also the whole melee/ranged hybrid thing is really neat. I wasn't sure I'd ever like it but the ranged classes in this game aren't as interesting and it helps a ton having range as a tank.

1. How do you think your Commando spec is perceived by other classes? Medic - a decent healer that can keep up with incoming damage on a few targets, other healers like to be around a medic for buffs. Gunnery - grav round spam. it's not necessarily a bad thing or even true, but other classes see gunners as nothing but grav round turrets 2. How do you perceive your own spec? medic - love it, fun spec, powerful heals when I need em with just an ounce of ammo management. I liked it more when ammo costs were lower, but I can live with it. I feel like I could use more heals, like another aoe heal to include in my aoe rotation and maybe a meaningful cooldown to get mad heals on the whole op group gunner- I try to love this spec. I love everything about it except the damage is pathetic. Maybe my rotation is off but it seems like it should be simple enough. No matter how well I gear my commando, I cannot do more damage than my vanguard. Vanguard is decently geared in mostly Rakata with some columi surge mods. Commando is decked out in mad rakata and black hole/campaign gear with way higher stats than vanguard. Cmdo pulls 1300 dps if I'm lucky, VG easily pulls 1700-1800 dps up to 2k if I'm lucky. I played commando because I wanted to nuke the crap out of enemies with my giant gun, but the nuking has been nerfed too hard in my opinion.

I've posted this before but it's seriously the biggest issue I face every time I play. The splash screen (loading screen that shows satele and malgus and the jedi/trooper etc.) is bugged and stays up way too long. Maybe it's just because I play on a low-end computer but that shouldn't mean I have to deal with game-breaking bugs. Every time I load a new zone, the splash screen pops up and stays on my screen long after the zone is loaded. I can move around and click on things but can't see anything past the splash screen. Often I can even see everything fully loaded up for a second before the splash screen appears and ruins my day for more than a minute. I say it's game-breaking because I'm often kicked from warzones because the splash screen stays up so long I can't leave the spawn area. Please fix the splash screen or remove it entirely.

Would be really neat if the mission terminal could be rolled into the group finder - so I never have to go to the terminal again. Same for warzone queuing, for that matter.

With the implementation of "smart" aoe attacks for tanks, why are there still no smart aoe heals that only target the lowest health group members? On a related note, why no changes for healers at all in 1.3? All 3 heal specs are balanced fairly well and are capable of healing current content, and most healers will agree with that. However, the biggest issue most healers complain about is "usability," which is an area the devs have specifically stated they want to work on.

This was kind of already addressed, but would it be possible to get some sort of "fringe ideas" blog where bioware can share information on stuff that may or may not make it into the game? With some sort of disclaimer so it's not like BW giving their word that we can hold them to. We get all sorts of answers like "we can't talk about this until it's 100% sure" so it would be really neat if those kinds of answers would be directed into this sort of blog or whatever. It would at least give us an idea of what the devs want to do, regardless of whether they're going to do it or not.

LOL the devs play WoW instead of SWtOR This isn't WoW Damion, it's called hard mode. Devs don't even play their own game, no wonder they're out of touch.

Will something like dual spec (field respec?) be coming with group finder to allow us to queue as 2 different roles? Will Ranked Warzones or Nightmare Denova be coming in 1.3? According to Daniel Erickson: "New armor sets come with new sets of content difficulty. 1.3 will not introduce any new armor sets." ........the answer is no Can you elaborate on any class balance changes that may be happening in 1.3? Why did you pick server transfers instead of server merges? Where do you expect us to get all the credits for Legacy unlocks? it takes like 2 weeks of doing all the dailies to afford some of the current unlocks... and with the upcoming costs of adding augments to our gear it seems like my credits will disappear faster than I can earn them

Name: Gravityround Spec: Gunnery Commando Gear: All Rakata except Columi OH, implants, ear. 2 on-use relics i didn't use in this parse Buffs: all classes, no stim, no adrenals, no relics DPS: 1267 Screenshot: http://i45.tinypic.com/35d3s0k.jpg

The splash screen with malgus and satele and the trooper and such really has to go. It shows up inappropriately and covers the screen so I can't see anything. After loading any new zone the splash screen shows up and stays for quite some time. I can move around and click on things as though the splash screen wasn't there but I can't see anything except malgus's ugly face. Sometimes I can even see everything for a second before the splash screen shows up but then it stays for a while. It's the worst on Carrick Station, Belsavis, and warzones but affects almost every zone change. The problem has been like this since launch but it is getting pretty annoying. I play on a very low-end computer (laptop) and there are plenty of other ways this game tortures low-end computers (like not showing the bad stuff on the ground until too late - Sentinel Droid, Dr. Lorrick, etc.) but the splash screen is really the worst imo.

The rez timers wouldn't be an issue except they also happen when revived in combat by another player. Timing a battle rez takes some skill and reviving a fallen comrade at a key moment can mean the difference between victory and a wipe. Except when u cast the combat revive, the target player has to wait up to 2 minutes or more before accepting it. During that time, the group wipes and runs back while you're still sitting there waiting for the rez timer

In this example the commando uses several 2 minute cooldowns, while the marauder uses none. That obviously can't always be the case and cooldowns favor the marauder. Simply using cloak of pain would make grav round crit for less than 2k, so grenade+grav+demo is only about 5k damage tops. Not nearly enough to put pressure on a marauder. Also, force leap interrupts so using that combo after using a knockback is completely worthless. As for your guide, it's kinda useful but you forgot to mention how to counter the obscenely long string of defensive cd's

Devs have replied to a couple threads to say the arsenal skills are working as intended but ignoring the skill that's broken. Another patch goes by and this skill still doesn't work. "While Armor-piercing Cell is active, critical hits with rounds and Full Auto have a 100% chance to generate 1 energy cell. This effect cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds." Full Auto actually has a 0% chance to generate 1 energy cell, only rounds have 100% chance on critical I tested this skill today. The simple test involved engaging the target dummy for a while using just the basic rotation. I avoided using Recharge Cells or Recharge and Reload so the only ammo gains that show on the log would be from Cell Charger. Here is the log of that test: http://www.torparse.com/l/32928 (my commando's name is Gravityround) Using Ctrl+F I found all the crits and all the ammo gains. "Gravityround gains 1 ." appears 47 times "Gravityround gains 0 ." appears 2 times (gain 0 instead of 1 when I'm already full ammo) "Gravityround's Grav Round critcally hits" appears 42 times ("critically" is misspelled by torparse) "Gravityround's Demolition Round critcally hits" appears 12 times "Gravityround's Full Auto critcally hits" appears 45 times Sure enough 49 ammo gains and 99 crits. Some of these can be explained by two Grav Round crits in a row but in the log every ammo gain appears next to a Grav Round crit or a Demolition Round crit but never Full Auto. Thus Full Auto crits never proc Cell Charger. Also, according to http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=446863 , Deadly Cannon doesn't work with Full Auto either. I have no comment on that, but I would believe it from the numbers in my log (73.03% surge).

The only bugged ticks were the first one when applying plasma to a target that didn't already have it, and high impact refreshing it. Ion pulse has always immediately ticked plasma when refreshing it. The fix for high impact refreshing the dot has substantially boosted dps at all ranges.

People who think pure DPS classes have no utility don't know anything about the pure DPS classes. The utility Snipers and Marauders bring to a group with Ballistic Shield and Bloodthirst and such is so much better than the weak heals a DPS spec merc/sage/op could possibly provide. A Mercenary can toss out a 3-5k heal here and there without having much heat issues from it. Ballistic Shield can easily prevent 10-20k damage. Bloodthirst can easily boost your healers' total output by more than 10k while also boosting group DPS. The question isn't "why bring a sniper who just does dps when we can bring merc who dps and some heals?" it's more like "why bring a merc who just has some weak heals when we can bring sniper who has so much utility?" This goes double for PVP where Trauma makes a DPS spec's heals almost totally worthless.

Definitely Naboo, especially the underwater city. You could even put in Jar Jar! (but not so annoying) otherwise Cloud City, Endor, Dagobah, Mustafar all high on the wishlist

I think the perfect fix would be in the curtain of fire skill, to not just increase damage of full auto but also let us channel it while moving. Since full auto can be specd to slow the target, this would allow us to run away while slowing down the opponent

Yes. You can also work in explosive round if you find that all the hammer shot has left you with a lot of spare ammo

Managed to get in a quick test with full class buffs before the raid a couple days ago - Class/Spec - Assault Vanguard Stats/Gear - all rakata, some black hole and augments http://i45.tinypic.com/2j3pu07.jpg DPS: 1400 (dipped just below while i took the screenshot) http://i45.tinypic.com/2gy9eh2.jpg EDIT: re-tested after 1.2.2 plasma cell fix DPS: 1600 http://i50.tinypic.com/14nns2.jpg

You mention cooldowns messing up the rotation... What cooldowns are you talking about? Adrenal, relic, battle focus, reserve powercell, recharge cells, reactive shield, adrenaline rush, and medpac are all off the GCD and thus can only interrupt pulse cannon if u activate in the middle of channeling, but can not "interrupt" an instant cast. The only "cooldowns" that can interfere with a rotation are utilities (cryo grenade/neural surge, harpoon) which are mainly pvp

I think it would improve the game if refreshing a Damage Over Time ability wouldn't totally reset the effect, but rather extend the duration up to the initial length. So that if a dot has a tick interval of 3 seconds and you maintain the dot 100% of the time during a fight, the dot will tick every 3 seconds for the duration of the entire fight. Currently in the game refreshing a dot either immediately applies the first tick or waits a full interval before a tick. Example: Incendiary Round - instantly deals X damage, followed by Y damage every 3 seconds for 18 seconds. Currently, used 5 times in a row would go: Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage 3 seconds later.. Incendiary Round ticks for Y damage .... it should be: Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage and ticks for Y damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage Incendiary Round hits for X damage and ticks for Y damage 3 seconds later.. Incendiary Round ticks for Y damage ....

I was curious about this as well so I tried it out. My gear is all Rakata and my spec is somewhat standard 4/6/31 On the operations dummy with just reflex stim and fortification I get these results: about 900 dps sustained from 30m range about 1100 dps sustained from 10m range 1200+ dps sustained at melee range but I never sustain dps at range so I compared my ranged burst to my melee burst. For about 15 seconds my ranged dps was around 1400 with still full ammo after hitting recharge cells compared to the 2000+ i get at melee range for the same amount of time imo explosive round is very underrated for both vanguards and commandos. it's pretty much the only instant cast, instant damage 30m range ability with no cooldown in the game. Of course you should always use ion pulse or grav round/charged bolts instead if you can help it but those abilities have the limitations of range/cast time.

It happens to my 50 assault vanguard from time to time. I usually don't notice it unless i'm trying to apply/refresh a DoT but it can be frustrating at times

Name: thebaron Class: Trooper Vanguard Spec: 4 / 6 / 31 Assault Specialist Gear: all Rakata DPS: 1190 Screenshot: http://i42.tinypic.com/1tnaxj.jpg Note: all the screenshots in this thread are of 2-minute durations, despite the OP stating 3 minute duration tests.