Exactly. The transfer process is like trying to read tea leaves, and the funny part it that I can't think of a reason why it shouldn't be a transparent process. Essentially, it looks like they increased the population limits on servers and are moving low pop servers onto heavy pop ones. For instance in the PVE/East realm, they did an 12 to 1 merge to Jedi Covenant, an 11 to 1 merge to Canderous Ordo, and a 7 to 1 merge to The Shadowlands. That leaves 13 servers to determine their fate: Anturi Reach Colonel Tobin Corellian Run Crevasse City Darth Bandon Firaxan Shark ICE Breaker Mind Trick Shadow Hand Shii-Cho Sith Wyrm Tarro Blood Thana Vesh I'm sure what BW saw is that transfers were happening at a rate somewhat greater than they planned, and especially saw The Shadowlands fill unexpectedly fast. The remaining servers must be on the high end of low population, so it's going to take some finesse to get them all merged into a population level equivalent to Jedi Covenant. All that is fairly apparent, and why BW just can't spell it our for us isn't clear. At any rate, the key to what I'm seeing is that there will be a process over the next couple days where one or two more destination servers are named and they will merge the remaining servers into them (at a much lower rate of like 6 or 5 to one).

Now, I'm sure that BW has the real numbers, but all we can go on is what's published here: http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us/stats We have 115 US Servers, of which 10 are marginally successful at maintaining a strong(ish) population of players. 105/115 servers are essentially dead, some more than others. I live on Darth Bandon. We have about 50-75 players in fleet on any given night. My guild still runs opps and we are hanging in there, but we are dying with everyone else on these low pop servers (and Darth Bandon has been around since beta.. I shudder to think what other servers are feeling). So, if you live on a server such as I, what is the population where you would consider life to be acceptable? My guess would be to increase the population 4-fold. In other words, since we have 10 that are somewhat stable, 0.25*105 = 26 additional servers should be all that we have for a total of 36. Server transfers won't cut it unless they are drastic and complete, and if that is the case, we need to know a roadmap sooner rather than later. For some reason, server merges seem to be off the table. Okay, I understand the whole choice issue, but guilds want to survive. Name identity is important to most guilds. Our guild banks are important. I know that BW is probably wrestling with these issues, but we need some clues, because there is desperation in the air. Look around BW. We need the info. Throw us a bone, please. We ARE at a point where 1.3 will make or break the game, but it's not the patch that will do it, but the time involved to decide what to do about the population.

Darkness Assassin is one of three main tank classes for end game raiding. The other two being the Juggernaut and the Powertech . My personal opinion is that the Darkness Assassin is the best of the three because we bring more to the table in terms of abilities: -Wither is great for both threat generation and aoe damage -Force Shroud is awesome in so many ways -We have more hit points than a similarly geared Jugg (don't know about the PT) -Our self heals help with survivability On the downside... -You can't swing a dead wombat without hitting at least 2 other Inquisitors in a raid -Our damage output isn't that great, but we're a tank.. so it's all good

I'm sure that this has been discussed before, but we need a Guild Alliance system (ala DAoC or Warhammer) as soon as possible. The dwindling population is a huge issue. Server transfers will help but they won't help small guilds survive. If we had a common alliance chat channel, any type operation would be easier to coordinate. Additionally, an alliance would help both small and large guilds survive. Large guilds could have an alt guild still in the alliance and other such organizational structure. With the population of SWtOR being so fragile at this time, we need a system to promote cooperation well beyond the new group finder promised in 1.3.

See, I don't view a new chapter as a 5-day tear through. I see it as almost as long as it took you to finish leveling to this point. A new chapter should integrate more war, more interaction, and more interesting challenges. If done creatively, a new chapter would require you to explore, do open world pvp, and give you a jumping off point to build more upon. Now, I don't think that they can deliver on that in two months, but BW can give us a vision for what a new chapter might look like in that time. The keys to my original post was to point out that BW needs to act quickly. They have missed opportunities in the past, but we are reaching a final tipping point and unless something changes fairly fast, the game will be lost for many more than it already has claimed.

I would respectfully argue that the BW layoffs were due to a variety of factors that include declining subscriptions, however, there is a big difference between initial development and continual development of a MMO. Therefore, I don't believe that the BW layoffs are a death sentence for the game. Additionally, EA is a notorious overlord, so I wouldn't read too much into that statement.

Yep, that is true. But, we are at a point where they can still salvage the game at a premium subscription level. If BW doesn't turn it around quickly (my read < 2 months), then it's over the ledge and I very much doubt a premium subscription service can be maintained. Again, I'm an Epidemiologist, analyst, and someone who is interested in complex systems models by trade. My analysis of the situation is that for optimal subscription retention and potential reactivation, that the 2-month time period is a reasonable expectation for success. Good on that! Things are okay on Darth Bandon, and the worlds fall much quieter after that.

I'm standing in the middle of the crossroads. I'm trying to use my skills in modeling and analysis to highlight some key linchpins in the road forward for a game that I do love. My subscription won't be canceled anytime soon, but in 2 months, if there isn't a clear path ahead, I'm very worried that there won't be a whole lot of interest anymore.

I'm GM of a wonderful guild on Darth Bandon (empire, Passion and Power). Our server still has 50+ people in the fleet during prime time. PvP pops on a fairly regular basis, so I would consider my experience somewhat optimal given the current state of the game. My guild has, in theory over 400 members, but in reality about 10-15 logins on any given evening. Many guilds on our server are disappearing or consolidating (we're trying to recruit smaller guilds to come raid with us). Having said all of that, here is what I see: We are at a crossroads where this game that I do love can either rebound or fade away and BioWare needs to respond quickly to address these issues or the 'fade away' option is a much greater reality. Therefore, this is what I hope to see in the very near future: Server population - Low population servers need to be turned off. This will save BioWare a LOT of money. More importantly, moving players from low population servers will increase EVERYONE's enjoyment of the game. I would hope that in the next two weeks, that the server list is cut in half. The players that are on low population servers, should be given a week to decide which server to move to from the high population list. If the player doesn't move, then those characters are stored in a 'holding server' and MUST be moved to a new server the next time the player wants to play. These actions would prop up the game until more content can be delivered. Content in 1.4 - BioWare needs to follow up the 1.3 patch with a 1.2 level content patch in version 1.4. Additionally that content should focus on expanding the end game experience. Events - The Rakghoul plague event was excellent. People were involved and it encouraged excitement in the game. We need more. Story!!! - The key to SWtOR is it's story. PERIOD We need another chapter (not more levels, but more story). The chapter can build on legacy and your impact on the SW universe. Therefore, my bottom line is a 2-month window of optimism. BioWare needs to deliver on most of the above points with a strong path forward in the next 2 months, or I firmly believe that our player base will continue to decline. If BW quickly addresses the issues above (especially 1 and 2), then I hold out some hope for continued enjoyment in SWtOR.

I agree. Also when you drop the pillar on SOA or have to eat a lightning ball with < half health. One question that I have is Force Shroud's effect on threat? It seems to me that after I use Force Shroud that the boss is more prone to loss of aggro. Is there a subsequent drop on the threat table after you use Force Shroud?

DPS and Darkness spec is really a bit of a challenge. You can certainly guard a healer and do well playing the tank role in pvp, but don't expect to be top of the damage charts. I would recommend either Deception or Madness. The key differences is that Deception has great situational burst DPS, while Madness has a nice array or DoTs and AoE, but it hindered by some stringent force management. You seem to be trying not to be a tank while in tank spec, and you might find more PvP utility in a DPS spec.

Darth Bandon is a thriving server with probably more of an Empire population than Republic. PVP pops fairly regularly and there are very good players on both sides of the fence. If you decide to roll to Darth Bandon, consider: Passion and Power as an Empire guild or Curb Your Imperialism as a Republic guild But aside from the blatant guild recruitment, I do recommend Darth Bandon. The server does seem to be surviving.

It is absolutely a viable mele dps option .. period .. end of discussion.... Madness has some significant force management issues, but is also very good. I prefer Madness when I dps, but a guildmate does full Deception and can more than hold his own in all HM Ops, including EC.

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. I finished working on a set of DPS gear (the cheap social I formal outfit gives a full set of 5 orange). Here's the stats: http://www.amadcow2.com/stuff/hasturstats.jpg What do you think? Too much crit? All in all, I'm liking Madness. With my Sniper partner, our total DPS has become rather impressive.

Well, there are too many pure tanks in my guild and we need DPS, so, since I've been Darkness since lvl 10, I decided to respec into Madness last night. I read our codex and it looks like my rotation revolves around the following: Death Field Assassinate (when up) Discharge Overcharge Thrash Saber Strike At any rate, I'm up for any comments and discussion on the whole madness thing. Thanks.