It wasn't a huge deal at the time, but kinda speaks to marauder durability: A guildmate (Sorc DPS) and I were pugging BT HM to get our dailies done (we were about half Rakata, half Columi gear) when the Tank (Juggernaut in lvl 50 oranges) went down on the bonus droid boss. I instantly pulled agro, backed up in the corner and popped "Saber Ward", followed by "Cloak of Pain". After about 5 seconds I used "Obfuscate" and "Undying Rage" followed by my Rakata med pack. Finally, I popped "Predation" when Obfuscate was about to expire. The Operative healer didn't even have to focus any attention on me and was able to get the Juggernaut back up to finish the fight. When he was back up, I dumped agro and that was that. Marauders can definitely tank, albeit for a short period of time. With all our defensive cool downs, we can really take a beating, and with our high end PVE gear we typically top out at around 18 - 19K of HP. Mix and match PVE/PVP gear, and you can top 20K hp. It's not too shabby considering our primary DPS role.

After doing a month worth of PVE dailies on Ilum, I will assure you that you never have to flag for PVP to complete ANY PVE quest on this planet. the only thing I can think of is that you somehow got some of the PVP quests (maybe from the PvP quest bounty board in fleet?) and are being directed to the PvP area. If this is the case, drop the quest if you don't like/want to do PVP. Other than that, you definitely do not have to flag for PVP to complete any PVE quests on Ilum.

Crit/Surge Enhancements: Enhancement = +38 Endurance, +19 Critical Rating, +48 Surge Rating Found in: Champion/Columi Combat Medic's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Field Medic's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Field Tech's Gloves and Helmet Champion/Columi Force-Mystic's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Salker's Gloves & Helmet Enhancement = +23 Endurance, +34 Critical Rating, +48 Surge Rating Found in: Champion/Columi Combat Tech's Gloves and Helmet Champion/Columi Force-Master's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Vindicator's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Weaponmaster's Gloves & Helmet Note: Other Xenotech pieces have Crit/Surge enhancements but they're not as good as these 2. Power/Surge Enhancements: Enhancement = +38 Endurance, +19 Power, +48 Surge Rating Found in: Champion/Columi Eliminator's Gloves & Helmet Champion/Columi Enforcer's Gloves & Helmet Those are the three enahancements that I pay the most attention to. The first Crit/Surge one is PVP oriented, so pepper that in whatever gear you want as needed. The second and third are what you want mixes of.

Farm Kaon HM for "The Prowler" and pull out the +41 crit crystal Kill Gharj in EV HM and/or Karagga for the Rakata weapon token. That crystal has +41 power. IMHO, these are the only crystals you should be going for. EDIT: and when you get to ~35% crit, dual Rakata Black/Red sabers look pretty dope!

Speaking more to fluidity: My rotation is so bound to muscle memory now that I accidentally screwed up our Operation on the Infernal Lords in EV when i popped berserk mid rotation. Now, I take it off my quick bar for that fight.

it gets really fluid. Just make sure you're thinking of your rotation when you layout your quickslots. My opening rotation (ripped shamelessly from Kiba's guide) on bosses is: Pop Frenzy Pop BloodThirst Force Charge (builds rage) Deadly Saber on the way in (every hit after this adds a bleed, uses up some of that rage) Battering Assault (Adds a DoT stack, builds a ton of rage) Rupture (get the double hit from this applied as early as possible) Annihilate ( 3 stacks of Juyo so far, Adds the last DoT to the stack, and uses up the rest of my Rage). *Pop Crit Adrenal *Pop Surge Adrenal *i want to get my bleeds applied as quick as possible, I pop adrenals after this to extend my crit/surge buff past the opening rotation and into mid-fight. Then you enter mid-fight rotation land: Assault to get you above 7 or 8 rage, Vicious slash down to about 4, Assault / Battering assault back up to 8, etc. At about the second round of this you're at 5 Juyo stacks, your Deadly saber is coming off CD, Rupture should be off CD due to Vicious Slash, and Annihilate should be close. Re-apply Deadly Saber as soon as it's off CD. Only re-apply Rupture when it's bleed is gone. You're wasting ticks of Rupture if you refresh it every time it's up. Annihilate/Vicious Slash only when you're above 6 or 7 rage. Build rage otherwise. Mid fight, you'll be popping Berserk. At the end of the fight (longer than 5 minutes so bloodthirst cools down), Pop Bloodthirst, adrenals, and ride the lightning to the end. TL;DR - Juyo usually caps out in stacks during the first part of your mid-fight rotation. Annihilate stacks usually around the 30 - 35 second mark into the fight. It's a point of contention within the Marauder community, but once you get your ramp up, you will do insane damage.

I've had issue with this not being done in time, so I typically go with the way I outlined above. Since I'm one of the DPS, I have the other one go first so I can control how the panels are disabled. I think the underlying theme here, though, is that you really need to control how/when the panels are disabled.

If you've ran this even a few times, you've likely experienced the buggy nature of this fight. To some, it can seem somewhat random as to how/when these bugs manifest. There are workarounds that help mitigate the chance they'll occur though. The first thing needed is to understand what's going on so these problems (when they occur) can be reacted to accordingly. 1) HK OUTSIDE HIS CHAMBER This issue really only affects melee classes or players that engage HK close up while he's outside his chamber. Try to avoid him here and attack at your own risk. He'll likely just knock you back, but if he's outside the chamber and the chamber is lowering, You're going to get crushed. The proximity detection as to if you get crushed or not is from him. BW is assuming he's in the chamber, but when he's not, they still think he is. This is the bug. Knowing this, treat him like he's in the chamber and avoid him. If you're looking to get a few quick hits in to avoid enrage timers, that's fine, just make sure the chamber isn't lowering at the time. 2) PANELS ON THE CHAMBER The bug here manifests as the chamber not lifting back up and HK basically enraging and wiping the party. This happens if the panels are disabled "too quickly" or "not fast enough". The "Not fast enough" situation is easy to get around and is a working-as-intended part of the fight. Dedicate either 1 or 2 people to disabling them and the fight will continue. The "Too Quickly" situation is the bug. If you have all 4 people disable the switches, you'll get into this situation when 2 or more people disable a panel at the same time, or close in time. It won't register that one of the panels was disabled, the panel will disappear, HK will enrage, and you'll wipe. Instead, Dedicate 2 people (Usually the DPS) to 2 sides. One player will disable their set of panels, and ONLY AFTER THE FIRST PLAYER IS DONE WITH THEIRS(!!) the second player will disable their set of panels. This will significantly mitigate the chamber panel bug. I'm still unclear if HK appearing at certain times outside the chamber is a bug or not. I (Marauder) will charge in to put my starting rotation of bleeds on him just to get extra damage on him, but when that's done, I get out of dodge and back on the adds. If you do this, just keep an eye on the chamber. If it's spinning, back off!

We had a serious bro'mance going. I was your Paulie D. You were my Vinnie. I would have hit a grenade for you, bro. And then I took you with me to that ship before going to Correllia. I don't even want to GTL with you any more. How could you do me like that, bro?

I also keep stuff with really long CDs, Berzerk, Predation, Bloodthirst, disable droid, all that crap off on the side quick bars. Only stuff I'm actively using or things that I might need acess to in a hurry are on the center quick bars.

I use a Nostromo game pad and a Lechesis mouse (with buttons on the side). The nostromo is set up with buttons 1 - 14 (the top buttons) mapped as 1 - 0, -, and =. The last 2 are mapped to "c" and "i". Honestly, i had no use for the last 2 so i as just "whatever". The directional is my movement. The first side button on my muse is Jump. The second side button on my mouse is my "sic'em" button for my companion. Basically send my companion in on something. The small button above the directional is mapped to <alt>, and i use this for keying the mic in Mumble/Ventrillo The mouse wheel is set to <tab> rolling forward and <shift>+<tab> rolling backward. The last button, the thumb button below the directional is keyed to <Shift>. The Thumb button allows me to use <shift><number> combinations. Okay, that said, i layout my most notable talents/abilities like this: 1 - Deadly saber 2 - Battering Assault 3 - Assault 4 - Vicious Slash 8 - Disruption - - Force charge = - Unleash <shift>1 - Rupture <shift>2 - Annihilate So my opening rotation plays out like this: -, 1, 2, <shift>1, <shift>2. (force charge, Deadly Saber mid charge, Battering assault, Rupture, Annihilate) Usually have to switch targets at this point. Mid rotation, my slower CD items are either on the "shift" bar, or away from my middle/ring fingers on the pad. I'm usually building rage and using rage-costing abilities to burn it off, but they're all right there at my fingertips. One note: Disruption is specifically in the "8" spot because it's dead center and I can get to it FAST. I have the AE version of it keyed to <shift>8 Unleash is out of the way, but there if I need it.

"Fathers of Taris" Heroic 4 awards a full head helmet.

Like: Force Charge --> Deadly Saber --> Battering Assault --> Rupture --> Annihilation Dislike: Having to change targets after that.

I've seen a lot of poorly played marauders. It's rough seeing people giving this class a bad rep. I'm a firm believer though, that doing well and performing beyond people's expectations will get you on their friends list and invitations to other HMs and OPs. Haters will laugh at what I'm about to say, but Marauders are a subtle beast. Most people think we just jump in and mash one button until somethings dead. This couldn't be further from the truth. Kibaken's guide really opens your eyes as to the proper application of death to targets. If you're passionate about maximizing your damage you'll realize that everything in that guide is geared to getting you into the mindset of setting up your priority system. Following that, is managing your Rage. Following that, is managing your agro. Following that, is managing interrupts, Fury abilities, other fight specific things. It gets complicated very quickly. I've been in groups with 2 other Marauders and a Healer and while the healer had their work cut out for them, we did just fine. understanding the strengths and limitations of the class, you can make groups like the one listed above work quite well. Setting up Kill orders, CC'ing where able, designating one person to protect the healer while the other two burn down targets, etc. There's a lot of complexity to the class, Unfortunately, Using Battering Assault and Assault to build up to 4 spams of Vicious Slash is really all some people see players of this class able to do.

double post.

What should I be aiming for as a Darkness spec Assassin? Just Grinding Dailies and replacing out mods? PVP gear? I'm halfway through level 48 and about to hit Corellia and it would be nice to start getting a jump on the things I'm going to need as a tank post 50.

I blew through the Taris class quest just so I could get her and went back to do all the planet quests. Not seeing anything come up that she could use during that entire planet was really rough! Couple that with the GAPING hole in her offhand for about 3 levels. I was really fiend'ing for a good offhand saber that didn't have an alignment requirement to it. the GTM only had Dark/Light requirements, and it took me getting to Hoth to eventually get one off the specialty vendor. Here's another question for all of you: what secondary stats do you go for with Ashara? Starting off, her crit chance was pretty high and i noticed her gear had a lot of Power, Critical Rating, and Surge. I've been focusing on these primarily. Any of you doing anything different?

Another thing with Xalek is a lot of his abilities are AoE based. From a tanking perspective, this isn't bad. The only time this can be a hazard is when you need to CC something and pull other stuff away. His AoE abilities will break mez and can cause problems. All of Ashara's abilities are single target. Keeping her focused on the right mobs, however, can be a chore.

Andy is pretty boss. One thing I found is that to get Ashara to her full potential, you really need to get that other offhand lightsaber. Getting andy up in damage is pretty easy and he's really solid in the DPS department. One thing I've noticed with him is since he's ranged DPS, and your companion's tend to try and off-tank mobs you're not on, if he targets a melee mob that you're not currently fighting you have to run to where he is to pull it off him. With Ashara, she's typically up there with you (unless she's used her "Charge" ability to leap past where you are). This only happens rarely, but it can be annoying. Thankfully, you can turn it off, making it easier to switch targets and focus stuff down. Xalek is the same as Ashara. In fact, he has the same "Charge" ability as Ashara. Turning that off helps out greatly.

first off, lets take Talos off the table. I know, I know. He's easy mode. Run in and hit stuff till it's dead while he heals you. That's all well and good, but (for me, at least) it doesn't make me a better tank. I like playing with either Ashara or Xalek (with all his tank stuff turned off and kitted out with pure DPS gear) as I HAVE to pay attention to things like: who has agro and do I need to taunt? How many ticks are left on Dark ward? Do I need to pop Deflection? Is Wither up? Which mob is my DPS focusing on? Do i need to change targets? Do I need to interrupt? These are all things I need to focus on when playing with either Ashara or Xalek and to be honest, i think it makes me a better tank. So, who do you all like better? Xalek has that neat little Consume Essence proc heal that works well with the Life Drain effect on Dark Charge. The thing with him, though is it's harder to gear him up with the companion quest rewards as they always want to pigeon hole him into the tank role. So I always gear him with stuff I don't need, or commendation stuff. Ashara is really easy. Her gear is good for the DPS role and things die really fast. The only problem I see with her is that a lot of her skills don't tend to mesh as well with my character as Xalek's do. They're both beasts in regards to DPS. I think right now Xalek is outdoing Ashara in the damage department on my Assassin, but it still seems like stuff dies a lot quicker with Ashara. So, who do you guys like better? More importantly, why?

Mako is as close as you get to what a real world girlfriend is like. The Sith Assassin's Ashara Zavros is close, but not like Mako. 1) You're meant to be attracted to her. She's got the "girl next door" attractiveness. 2) She tries to change who you are. 3) It's impossible to be your "guy self" around her. 4) When in groups, when everyone else is making dark side decisions and having fun, you're making light side decisions to not p!ss off Mako. 4) There's always this "Oh boy, how can i get out of this one" thought during every conversation. 5) She apparently loves it when you're doing what a bounty hunter is supposed to do, but hates you killing things. And probably the most proof she's like a real world girlfriend: I want to see her hook up with my female chiss Mercenary. every time I deal with Mako, I keep looking back to the movie "Dinner for schmucks" where Paul Rudd's Character is telling his girlfriend "The bad me has to do bad things so the good me and you can be happy!"

I have him in his default single target stance (sniper). I'm pretty far up the Darkness tree right now, so I typically start out with the following when dealing with groups: (pre-lim) Guard goes on Andy make sure buffs are good. Tab through targets and pick the strongest one. 1) Dark ward 2) Force run in 3) Overcharge Saber hopefully getting up to 4 targets 4) Lacerate a few times 5) focus on my target While this is going on, Andy is dropping other targets On boss pulls where it's just me and Andy, it's basically the same thing but with more single target abilities: 1) Dark ward 2) Force run in 3) Overcharge Saber hopefully getting the boss and whatever adds 4) Lacerate a few times 5) Mass Mind Control 6) Burn down adds 7) Pop Deflection 8) Single target abilities on boss: Shock, Electrocute, Overcharge when off CD, Crushing Darkness, etc. Andy's AI seems to focus on the adds, so those drop fast. After that, it's just stacking the damage on the boss and mitigating his damage on you. I'm a fan!

So Andronikos joined up with me over the weekend and as a Darkness Assassin I couldn't be happier. Khem's damage output pales in comparison to "Andy's" and more often than not, I can wade into a group of mobs, Dark ward, Overcharge saber, and AoE taunt. As I focus on the strong/elites in the group, he's picking off the normals! I love him so much, i spent half an hour giving him Padded weapon boxes to get him up around 5000 affection. Any other Darkness types out there have a man-crush on Andronikos?

/sign* *I understand this isn't going to go anywhere as these requests to change non-breaking game animations/mechanics never do. When I first got Tracer Missile and fired it off for the first time, I was like "*** is she doing?" (my merc is a chick) and "Why is her head on fire?" When I first got Fusion Missile and fired it off for the first time, I thought to myself "okay, missile blast didn't require a laser sight to fire off, but at least stuff is on fire!" and "Why do we need something that is going to set everything within 5 meters on fire to be 'accurate' enough to require a laser guidance system?" those of you who have gotten this far in the post will come to the obvious (and correct) conclusion that I over analyze things. Anyway, switching the animations would be a good thing, IMHO.

I think the question on everyone's mind is: Did she send you a couple hundred credits along with the email? Cuz that would rule!