This doesn't answer whether it's story only or ALL missions. Can you elaborate on your experience?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I knew I didn't want alacrity. My thinking was Crit vs Surge, but they usually come together. So yeah, I've read "no alacrity", but why? I've read how it's increasing our heat dissipation. Is that not true, or is there more to it?

Though at this point it's not a big deal until I start tweaking my enhancement/mods cause I no longer need my augments to include any accuracy since my gear alone hits my cap. So as my rating increases I'll slowly be replacing my accuracy enhancements to keep just above the cap. Any recommendations on what to replace them with?

BINGO! Thanks!

So your accuracy numbers are confusing me. On the original guide for Arsenal 2.0, you mention 470, but in your profile, you only have 446 with %110.xx. To further confuse me, my merc needs at least 528 to cap at %110 for special attacks. I only have 3% bonus from skills while I see your profile has a 4% bonus. What am I missing? I seem to need way more Accuracy to meet my cap than you do. Insights?

I've noticed something strange with the math here. I'm giving Ashara premium rank 1 courting gifts and she's at 3400 affection. So that's: Premium: 1x Rank Diff: 0.5x (-1) Courting: 4x round(1*0.5*4*24) = 48, just like the charts suggest. However, I'm getting only 19, which is suggesting a rank diff of -2. What am I missing here? She's 3400, which means rank 2 affection and a lvl 1 gift, 1-2 = -1...?

This all depends on when you gave it to her? I tried giving some to her, but like you, she gave me +0. Until I got her to a certain point, can't remember where, I think it was around 1k, and she wanted to talk. Women always want to talk... So when we were talking, I was able to flirt with her. From there on, her likes went up quite a bit. She now LOVES courting gifts (+++). Most guides you'll see have a split for her. The split if for when she turns courtable. Just keep giving her Rep stuff, and eventually she'll open up. She's a real tough one to relate with. Another annoying thing about her I've noticed is that she always wants to talk on the ship. She won't talk in the cantina. I'm guessing that's because in a bit things are going to get hot and heavy and she's not into voyeurism :D